Skip to main content
A skill tells a bot how a particular job is done — the checklist for a weekly report, the steps for a support triage, the way your team wants a summary written. Instead of carrying every procedure in its context all the time, the bot loads a skill when the task calls for it.

​
Enable a skill

1

Sign in and open a bot you own

A guest cannot enable or run skills.
2

Enable the first-party skills the bot should follow

Each bot has its own set. Enable only what that bot’s job needs.
3

Let the bot use them

The bot loads a skill through its skill tool when a task matches. You can also ask for one by name in the conversation.

​
Skills are not…

​
Skills in the CLI

The CLI has its own skills system for the coding agent — SKILL.md bundles with frontmatter, found in your project or under ~/.cortex/skills/, loaded through a UseSkill tool and gated by the permission.skill table. Those are CLI skills for Code, separate from Bot’s first-party skills. See Extend the CLI.

​
Related

  • Tools — the skill tool and the rest of the catalog.
  • How Bot works — what you see when a skill runs.