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A skill is a set of instructions you save once and reuse with the Omni Agent. You write the instructions one time, and everyone on your team gets the same result instead of writing their own prompt. Skills are more than saved prompts. The person who writes a skill decides which data to use, which numbers matter, and how to present the result. A skill can also do work that a single question cannot: ask you for input, run a series of queries, and bring the results together. Anyone who runs the skill gets the benefit of those decisions without having to make them.

How skills work

When you run a skill, the Omni Agent reads the instructions and works through them in chat. Skills work well for:
  • Standardized reports — Generate a weekly sales summary with specific metrics, groupings, and comparisons, formatted the same way every time.
  • Guided lookup — Ask the user for an account name, then pull relevant records and summarize the findings.
  • Data quality checks — Run a series of queries to find anomalies, missing values, or threshold breaches, then summarize the results.
  • Onboarding helpers — Walk a new user through a dataset by querying key metrics and explaining what each one means.

Skills versus sample queries

Both skills and sample queries can help you get started with the Omni Agent, but they do different things: Use both together. Sample queries are helpful for finding what data exists; skills package a repeated task into something you can run by name.

Skill properties

Skills have the following properties:

Requirements

To create and run skills, your organization must have the following settings enabled in AI Hub > General > Features:
  • Enable AI - Required to use AI features
  • Omni Agent - Required to use the Omni Agent
  • Omni Agent > Skills - Required to create and run skills. Applicable to skills created using the Omni Agent or the Skills page. are not affected by this setting.

Creating skills

Access to the Omni Agent is required to create and run skills.
You can create skills by asking the Omni Agent or manually creating a skill on the Skills page. You can also add them to a model using the model IDE, but note that this method will be deprecated in the near future. See Common questions for more information about the differences between agent/UI-created skills and model-defined skills.
Ask the agent to save a way of working and it writes the skill for you:
The agent picks the Name, Identifier, and Description, and writes the Instructions — distilling them from the conversation when you’re turning an existing thread into a skill, or from your request when you’re starting fresh.

Running skills

Run skills in a chat with the Omni Agent or from the Skills page.
You can run a skill in chat by:
  • Typing / in the chat to open the quick skill menu. Keep typing to narrow the list by skill name and identifier.
  • Selecting the skill from the actions menu. Click the icon in the bottom left corner of the chat input, then select Skills.
  • Directly invoking the skill. Anywhere in a message, type the skill’s identifier with a leading slash:
    What you type stays as the prompt. The skill’s instructions are attached as context, so the agent sees your request and the instructions together and applies one to the other. This means you can add conditions, filters, or follow-up questions to a skill without editing it.
For model-defined skills only, a button for the skill will display above the chat input if you have the required model permissions and access grants. Click the button to run the skill.

Adding files to skill conversations

The Omni Agent > File uploads AI setting must be enabled to attach files in a chat.
Adding a file to a skill conversation gives the Omni Agent more information to work with. For example, a skill can ask you to upload a CSV of target accounts, then compare that list against data in Omni:
Example skill instructions
See Uploading files in AI chat for information about supported file types and processing.

Sharing and accessing skills

Sharing is in development. You’ll be able to share a skill with specific users and groups, or with everyone in your organization, the same way you share a dashboard.
Currently, you can see and edit the skills you created on the Skills page. Organization Admins are able to view and edit all skills in the organization, regardless of who created them.

Writing effective skills

Keep the name short

Pick two to four words that describe the task.

Be specific

The more detail you give, the more consistent the result. Name the fields, time ranges, groupings, metrics, and output format you want. For example:

Start by asking for what you need

If the skill needs information only the user has, such as an account name or a date range, open the instructions by telling the agent to ask for it. For example:

Number the steps

For a multi-step process, numbered steps help the agent follow the sequence you intended. For example:

Describe how to present the results

Tables, summaries, sections with headers, health scores — tell the agent the format to get consistent results. For example:

Name the topic when it matters

If the skill should use a specific topic, include it in the instructions:

Test and iterate

Run the skill from its page, see how the agent reads the instructions, then edit and run it again.

Examples

Need some inspiration? Check out the Library for ideas and skills you can add right in your Omni organization!

Product roadmap answers

Answer questions internal teams ask often by searching Google Drive and Slack. As with topics for queries, naming specific Slack channels or Google Drive files and folders helps increase answer quality.
Product roadmap answers

Triage bug reports

Use Omni documentation, feature progress, GitHub, Slack, and Google Drive to decide whether a new bug report is needed or an existing issue can be updated.
Bug intake

Support agent

Accelerate support issue resolution by systematically querying existing knowledge sources like Google Drive and Slack and identifying overlaps, duplicates, and relevant precedents.
Support agent

Common questions

Model-defined skills are created using the skills parameter in a model file or topic. Users with Modeler permissions or higher can create and edit these skills through the model IDE.
Yes. In the near future, Omni will deprecate model-defined skills in favor of managing skills through the Omni Agent or Skills page.
Yes, but going forward, create skills through the Omni Agent or Skills page.

Next steps

  • Routines — Run AI prompts on a schedule
  • AI settings — Turn AI features on and off for your organization
  • Library — Browse ready-made skills, apps, and routines