Skills

In short: A skill is knowledge, a way of working and the tools that go with it. Skills are the only list of what an AI agent can do: an agent only gets the tools that its skills bring. Skills come from aishaa or from a plugin, or you make them yourself. They use the open Agent Skills format, so you can import a skill from another tool as a SKILL.md or zip and export your own skills. An agent only reads the way of working of a skill when the work calls for it.

Where to find this

• You manage all the skills of the account on Account > Skills.
• Which skills an agent has and what it may do per tool, you choose on Account > Agents, on the agent’s Skills tab. With Manage skills you go from there to the Skills page.

Who: both pages are visible from the Organisation admin role. Creating, importing, copying, deleting and giving skills to an agent is possible from the Account admin role. An Organisation admin sees a notice at the top that this is shared with the whole account and that only account admins can change it. Skills apply to the whole account.

The Skills page with on the left the list grouped into From aishaa, From a plugin and Made by you, with per skill the number of tools and how many agents use it, and on the right an open skill with When to use, Way of working, Tools and the Export and Make a copy buttons, menu Account > Skills.

What a skill is

The Skills page puts it like this: A skill is knowledge, a way of working and the tools that go with it. An agent only loads the way of working when the situation calls for it.

A skill consists of:

A skill can also bring only tools (No way of working: this skill only brings tools.) or be only knowledge and a way of working (No tools: this skill is knowledge and a way of working.).

Where skills come from

In the list, the skills are in three groups. Each skill has a chip with its source.

For each skill the list shows how many tools it brings (All tools or for example 3 tools) and how many agents use it (Not used by any agent, Used by 1 agent, Used by 2 agents). With Search skills you search by title and description.

A skill from aishaa or from a plugin shows: Skills of aishaa and plugins stay as they are. Make a copy to adjust one.

Creating your own skill

1. Go to Account > Skills and click New skill.
2. Fill in the Title. The Name follows the title automatically; you can also fill it in yourself.
3. Under When to use, describe what the skill does and when the agent should use it. Write this carefully: based on this text the agent chooses whether it needs the skill.
4. Under Way of working, write how to do it, in Markdown.
5. Under Tools, tick which tools an agent with this skill gets. The tools are listed per source: From aishaa and per connected plugin. A tool with the Action chip does something in a system; the others look something up.
6. Optionally add reference files under Files with Add file. Give each file a Path, such as references/returns.md, and a Content.
7. Click Save. You see Skill saved.

A custom skill being edited with the fields Title, Name, When to use and Way of working, the Tools section with an expandable block of tick boxes per source and the Files section, menu Account > Skills.

Saving is only possible with a title, a text under When to use and a valid name. If something is wrong, Not saved yet appears at the top with what needs to be changed.

A tool you chose but that is not available in this organisation is listed separately under Chosen, but not available in this organisation:. If there are no tools to choose from yet, you see No tools to choose from yet. Connect a plugin to add its tools.

Importing a skill

This is how you bring over a skill from another tool in the Agent Skills format:

1. Go to Account > Skills and click Import.
2. Choose a SKILL.md, or a zip with the skill’s folder (with the SKILL.md in the root or in one folder). The file is at most 2 MB.
3. aishaa reads the skill and opens it. You see Skill imported.

What aishaa does when importing:

• The SKILL.md must start with YAML frontmatter between --- lines, with a valid name and a description. If that is missing, or the name is already in use, the import fails and you see The import did not work with the reason.
• Files in the scripts/ folder are skipped: scripts are not run in aishaa.
• Only text files up to 60 kB are kept, and at most 20 files.
• Tools from the skill that aishaa does not know are skipped; choose the tools after importing.

If something was skipped, you see Imported, with a few things left out with the list of what did not come along.

Copying, exporting and deleting

You can also lock your own skill with Lock, so nobody changes it any more. See Lock configuration.

Giving skills to an agent

1. Go to Account > Agents, open the agent and click the Skills tab (What this agent can do. Each skill brings the tools it needs; per tool you choose what the agent may do with it.).
2. Click Add skill. A window opens with the skills the agent does not have yet, grouped by source.
3. Tick one or more skills and click Add skill (or for example Add 2 skills).
4. Choose per tool what the agent may do (see below) and click Save at the bottom of the agent.

You remove a skill with Remove on that skill’s card; you also save that with Save. An agent has at most 40 skills. If an agent has no skills, it says Without skills this agent only answers from its instructions and knowledge. Add what it should be able to do.

A new agent starts with the skills of all connected plugins (each with all their tools), so it can use the connected systems straight away. Remove what the agent does not need. For a new agent, you only choose per tool what it may do after you have saved the agent.

The Skills tab of an agent with, per skill, a card with the source chip, the description and the tools with, per tool, an On or Off switch or a drop-down list with Off, Propose only or Execute autonomously, the Conditions button and at the bottom Add skill, menu Account > Agents.

What an agent may do per tool

On the agent’s Skills tab there is a card per skill with the tools it brings. With more than three tools, they are in an expandable block with, for example, 8 tools and 5 of 8 on. If the same tool is in two skills, it is one setting.

A tool that looks something up has an On or Off switch. A tool with the Action chip has a drop-down list:

Even with Execute autonomously when judged safe, an action becomes a proposal for a colleague if the agent does not judge it safe, if the customer has several records of that kind (for example several orders), or if the agent is working in the Carry out a task workflow step or in aishaa on this ticket. Proposals for actions go to To do and appear in the ticket; see To do.

A tool that the skill names but that is missing in this organisation is shown with Not available here: the plugin is not connected, or the tool is off on the plugin page. If a plugin offers no tools for the AI in this organisation, you see This plugin offers no tools for the AI in this organisation. Which actions exist for the AI and who may carry out an action by hand, you set on the plugin’s page; see Plugin settings: customer data, catalogues and actions.

Conditions per tool

With the Conditions button next to a tool you decide when the agent may use that tool: The agent may use this tool only when every condition holds. Leave all on “Always” to keep it always available. If there are conditions, the button is called, for example, 2 condition(s).

Every condition must hold; within one condition, one chosen value is enough. If aishaa cannot determine something, for example whether it is within opening hours, a condition on it holds the tool back.

aishaa’s skills

• Schedule follow-up: the agent plans a moment itself to look at the ticket again, for example to check whether an order has arrived or the customer has responded. That is a moment for aishaa itself, not a wake-up call for the team. If the tool is on, you set Maximum horizon (days), 1 to 365 days (Recommended: 14 days).
• Message external party: the agent proposes messages to suppliers and other external parties. A first contact always requires approval; the autonomous setting only applies to follow-up messages. See External parties.
• Plan for the team: the agent plans a wake-up call or puts the conversation aside (snooze) until a moment, for example when a customer asks to be contacted after a holiday. See Snoozing and wake-up calls.
• Send a WhatsApp template: the agent proposes an approved WhatsApp template, to the customer if the 24-hour window is closed, or to an external contact. See WhatsApp templates.

If you give an agent one of these skills, the corresponding tool switches on; an action starts in the Propose only (human approves) setting. If you remove the skill, the tool switches off.

Produced file

If a tool produces a file, for example a return label or an invoice, there is a Produced file drop-down list as long as the tool is on.

This choice also applies if a colleague carries out the action themselves.

How an agent uses its skills

• Tools only via skills. An agent only gets the tools its skills bring, and of those only the tools that are on and whose conditions hold. There is no other way to give an agent a tool.
• Loading when the work calls for it. The agent knows the title and When to use of every skill. It only reads the Way of working and the files when a question calls for it. That keeps the agent sharp, even with many skills.
• The way of working steers, the rules stay. A skill determines how the agent works, but never overrides what the agent may do with a tool, or aishaa’s fixed rules, such as that every reply starts as a proposal.
• No scripts. aishaa never runs scripts from a skill.
• Trust starts over. If you give an agent a different set of skills, or change a custom skill it has, who the agent is changes. The trust it has built up then starts over. See Trust and letting an agent send by itself.

Good to know

• If the team lets almost all proposals of an action expire, aishaa proposes switching that action off for that agent. That proposal appears with the Hardly used chip under Waiting for your approval on the Changes page, with Yes, turn off and No, keep it. See Tell aishaa.
• Via the connection with Claude or ChatGPT you can have your own skill proposed and have skills given to agents. That always becomes a proposal that someone approves. See Connect aishaa to Claude or ChatGPT (MCP).
• A duplicated agent takes over all skills and choices per tool.
• Changes to agents and custom skills appear in the Changes overview. See Changes and reverting.
• Off on a plugin’s page always takes precedence: then the action does not exist anywhere, not even for the AI.

Related

• AI agents
• The library
• Trust and letting an agent send by itself
• Plugin settings: customer data, catalogues and actions
• Plugins: overview of the integrations
• To do
• Snoozing and wake-up calls
• External parties
• WhatsApp templates
• Lock configuration