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.
- Omni Agent
- Omni UI
- IDE
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.
Editing skills
You can edit a skill’s name, description, identifier, or instructions from the Omni Agent, the Skills page, the API, an MCP client, or the Omni Slack Agent.- Omni Agent
- Omni UI
- API
- MCP
- Slack Agent
Ask the agent to change a named skill:This type of prompt completely replaces the skill’s instructions, so describe the entirety of the desired behavior rather than just what’s different. The agent may ask clarifying questions before writing the changes if your request is ambiguous.
Running skills
Run skills in a chat with the Omni Agent, from the Skills page, through the API, with an MCP client, or from a routine’s prompt.- Omni Agent
- Omni UI
- Routines
- API
- MCP
- Slack Agent
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.
Direct invocation also works when messaging the Omni Slack Agent — type the skill’s identifier anywhere in your message to the agent.
Adding files to skill conversations
The Omni Agent > File uploads AI setting must be enabled to attach files in a chat.
Example skill instructions
Sharing and organizing skills
Skills are shared and organized the same way as other content. New skills are created in your personal space with you as the Owner. Share a skill to let others view, run, or edit it. Organization Admins can view and manage every skill in the organization.Skill access roles
Sharing a skill
- Open the skill from the Skills page, or open the Options menu on its row.
- Click Share.
- In the Share with users or groups field, enter users or groups and choose an access role.
- Click Share.
/ menu in chat and under Shared with me. Edits to a skill apply the next time it runs, including in routines that use it.
Organizing skills
Skills appear alongside your other content in My Documents, Shared with me, and folders. From a skill’s Options menu, you can:- Move the skill to a folder
- Apply Labels
- Favorite the skill using the star icon
Viewing skills
- Omni Agent
- Omni UI
- API
- MCP
Ask the Omni Agent to see all of your skills:Or request a specific skill:The agent will respond with the skill(s) and ask if you want to run any of them.
Deleting skills
- Omni Agent
- Omni UI
- API
- CLI
- MCP
- Slack Agent
Ask the agent to delete a skill in a chat:The agent will ask you to confirm before deleting the skill.
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
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
What are model-defined skills?
What are model-defined skills?
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.How do model-defined skills differ from chat and UI-created skills?
How do model-defined skills differ from chat and UI-created skills?
Will model-defined skills be replaced?
Will model-defined skills be replaced?
Yes. In the near future, Omni will deprecate model-defined skills in favor of managing skills through the Omni Agent or Skills page.
Will my model-defined skills still run?
Will my model-defined skills still run?
Yes, but going forward, create skills through the Omni Agent or Skills page.
Next steps
- Routines — Run AI prompts on a schedule or when a condition is met
- AI settings — Turn AI features on and off for your organization
- Library — Browse ready-made skills, apps, and routines
- MCP server tools — Find and read skills from an MCP client

