A skill is a reusable package of instructions that teaches the agent how to do something well — review a pull request, draft a sales email, triage your inbox, format a research report. Instead of re-explaining a workflow every time, you install a skill once and the agent knows how to handle it.
What a skill is
Each skill is a small bundle centered on a SKILL.md file containing:
- a name and description, and
- markdown instructions (and optionally supporting files or scripts) that guide the agent.
When a skill is active, its instructions are added to the agent's context for that turn — so the agent follows your preferred process.
Where skills come from
Skills come from Skillopedia, an open, crowd-sourced catalog of skills for AI agents — think Wikipedia for agent know-how. You can browse and search it right inside Agentastic, install with one click, or contribute your own. You can also import a skill from a GitHub repository.
How skills activate
Skills can run two ways:
- Manually — attach a skill to a single request with the
/skill:tag, e.g./skill:pr-review. - Automatically — Agentastic matches skills to your situation using auto-match rules (the app you're in, the website, keywords in your prompt) and activates the best matches for you. See Auto-Match Rules.
Skills vs. commands vs. tools
- A skill shapes how the agent does a task (instructions and process).
- A tool gives the agent a capability (web, files, shell, an API).
- A command (the Commands tab in Skills) is a custom shortcut you invoke directly.
They work together: a skill might tell the agent to use the web and file tools in a particular sequence.
Get started
- Install & Manage — browse Skillopedia, install, edit, and remove skills
- Auto-Match Rules — control when skills fire automatically