AI Vocabulary · 05 Agents
What is Skill?
A packaged set of instructions and resources an AI loads only when a task needs it, like a playbook for one kind of job.
A skill bundles everything an agent needs for one type of task: step-by-step instructions, examples, templates and sometimes small scripts. Instead of loading all of this into every conversation, the agent sees a short description and pulls the full skill into its context only when the task calls for it. Anthropic introduced Agent Skills in 2025, and the idea is spreading across tools.
Skills are a practical form of context engineering: the right knowledge, at the right moment, without crowding everything else out.
Why it matters for you
Skills turn "how we do things here", such as writing a proposal in your style, preparing a board report or checking a contract, into something an AI can repeat reliably. That is how a team's best practice becomes everyone's default.
Own it
A skill is your know-how in a reusable, readable file. Write them in plain language, keep them in a place you control, and they become part of your personal knowledge base instead of being locked into one tool.
Where it comes from
Anthropic introduced Agent Skills in October 2025: folders of instructions, scripts and resources that an agent loads only when a task needs them. On 18 December 2025 it published the format as an open standard at agentskills.io, so skills can work across different AI tools (The New Stack).
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