Skills

Reusable behavior packs your agents and AI clients can call.

What is a skill?

A skill is a single markdown file with YAML frontmatter at the top. Once installed in a workspace, it shows up as an MCP prompt every connected client sees (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, anything that speaks MCP). Calling the prompt loads the body into the model with any arguments you pass.

Skills are reusable. Some live only inside your workspace, some are installed from a marketplace, some are baked into the platform. Common patterns: standardized prompts, multi-step workflows, context packs for specific tools, internal style guides.

The SKILL.md format

One file, two parts. YAML frontmatter between --- markers up top, then the prompt body in markdown. Here is a realistic example.

SKILL.md

---
name: draft-status-update
displayName: Draft status update
description: Pulls last week's database changes and drafts a Monday email
type: general
version: 1.0.0
tags: [reporting, weekly]
metadata:
  owner: ops
---

# Draft a status update

You are a writing assistant for the operations team. When invoked,
fetch the last 7 days of activity from the "Deals" database, summarize
the moves in 4-6 bullets, and draft a short email.

## Step 1: pull recent activity
Use s16_list_pages on the Deals database with a filter on
"Last edited time" >= 7 days ago.

## Step 2: write the email
Use a casual but professional tone. Lead with the biggest win.
End with a single CTA line.

$ARGUMENTS can include a custom audience override (e.g. "investors").

Frontmatter fields

namerequiredURL-safe identifier. Lowercase, hyphenated.

displayNameoptionalPretty name shown in clients. Defaults to name.

descriptionrequiredShort summary shown in the prompt picker.

typeoptionalgeneral (default) or editor. Editor skills show up as slash-menu items inside Brain.

versionoptionalSemver tag. Useful when you publish to the marketplace.

tagsoptionalFree-form labels for grouping and search.

metadataoptionalArbitrary key/value bag. Anything your team needs.

$ARGUMENTSplaceholderAnywhere in the body. Substituted with caller-provided args at invoke time.

How to publish

Workspace tab

Write a skill in your AI client, push it via s16_create_skill, or drop a SKILL.md folder onto the Skills page in Brain. Visible only to your workspace.

Installed tab

Skills your workspace has installed from elsewhere. Read-only locally. Updates flow from the source.

Marketplace

Public skills any workspace can install. Toggle isPublic: true on a workspace skill to publish it.

What can a skill do?

Generate a meeting recap from the last 24 hours of edits.

Re-categorize a database row using an LLM.

Translate any doc into another language as a copy.

Draft a weekly investor update from your deals database.

Turn a raw transcript into action items linked to people.

Browse the API your skills will call

Full reference for the s16_* tools you can wire into a skill body.

Build the agent behind a skill

Skills package agent workflows your AI clients can call on demand.

Last updated June 24, 2026