# What are skills?

> Skills are Markdown instruction files that every agent in your workspace can read.

canonical: https://agentsky.dev/help/skills-overview
source: https://agentsky.dev/help/skills-overview.md
updated: 2026-11-02

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**Skills are Markdown instruction files that every agent in your workspace can read.**

When you upload a skill, you teach your agents a process, style guide, or piece of domain knowledge. Every agent in the workspace can use every skill automatically — there is no per-agent assignment.

1. Open Library › Skills.
2. Click Upload files and choose a .md file (or a zip containing a SKILL.md).
3. The skill appears in the list and is active immediately.

Where: Library › Skills (web and Mac).

Good to know: attaching a SKILL.md file directly to a chat installs it as a skill for that session only. Skills are not charged; they are stored and delivered as context. Related: [Upload a skill](https://agentsky.dev/help/upload-a-skill), [What is the Library?](https://agentsky.dev/help/library-overview).

## Skill packs

A skill pack is a ready-made set of skills and commands from a Claude Code plugin marketplace, such as a company's own pack for its product. Skill packs are in Files › Skills, under your own skills, not on the Plugins page.

1. Open Files › Skills and scroll to Skill packs.
2. Search Discover, or click Show more to see more packs.
3. Click + on a pack to add it. Its skills reach every new conversation, and you can type / in the composer to use one.
4. To remove a pack, click it under Added and choose Remove.

Opening a pack shows what is inside: its skills and commands, any MCP servers, and the apps it needs you to connect.

## Using skills from an agent

Every skill is a plugin with the id `skill:<id>`. `sky plugins list --view yours --use skills` lists them, `sky plugins show skill:<id>` reads one, `sky plugins add skill:<id>` makes it available to every new chat and `sky plugins rm skill:<id>` deletes it. `sky plugins revisions skill:<id>` lists its saved versions and `sky plugins upload <directory>` uploads a new skill (`POST /v1/plugins`, multipart, as before). The old `sky skills` and `sky library skills` commands still run: each prints one line naming its `sky plugins` replacement.

A skill pack is a plugin with the id `bundle:<name>`: `sky plugins list --view discover --use skills` lists the packs to add (with the workspace's own skills as `skill:` entries), `sky plugins add bundle:<name>` adds one and `sky plugins rm bundle:<name>` removes it.

From an MCP client, `list_plugins` (with `use: "skills"`), `get_plugin`, `add_plugin` and `remove_plugin` do the same; `list_plugin_revisions` and `read_plugin_file` read a skill's versions and files. Library-only steps (settling pending workspace defaults, the consumer fingerprint records) are reached with `call_api` on `/v1/library/skills`, which is unchanged.