A skill is a Markdown file that teaches an agent one repeatable task end to end: when it applies, what inputs to expect, the steps, the checks, the rules that must not be broken. Publishing an article is a skill. Producing a monthly report is a skill.
Skills are how capability accumulates. Each one is written once, tested against a real run, and then reused. A new agent with the same skills does the same work the same way.
Because a skill is a file, it can be read by the person who owns the process, corrected, and handed to whoever comes next.
Example
What it looks like.
skill.mdplain text
A skill's opening lines:---name: publish-articledescription: Turn a draft into a published, illustrated, narrated post under the layout rules.---## TriggerA card titled Publish: ... assigned to you.
Related
Read next.
- instruction fileThe Markdown file that tells an agent who it is, what it owns, and what it may never do. The agent's job description, readable by the agent.Read the definition
- workflowA piece of work from trigger to done, run by an agent under instructions. Not a flowchart. The agent handles the branches the chart never drew.Read the definition
- documentationThe written record of how a system works. Here, the agent keeps it current, so the person who was not in the room can take over.Read the definition