Agent skills (SKILL.md)
An agent skill is a packaged set of instructions — typically a SKILL.md file with a name, a one-line description of when to use it, and the method below — that an AI agent keeps in view only by its description and reads in full when a task calls for it.
- Format
- A Markdown file, SKILL.md
- Decides when it runs
- The one-line description
- Is not
- New abilities or code
What a skill is
Most people who use AI seriously end up re-typing the same instructions: how reading notes should be laid out, what a meeting summary must contain, which checks a draft has to pass. Or they keep a document of prompts and paste from it, until the one they need is the one they forgot they wrote.
A skill is that explanation saved once, in a form an agent can find on its own. The common shape is a
SKILL.md file with two lines at the top — a name, and a description of when to use it —
and the method below: the steps, what to check, what the output should look like.
The design trick is in what the agent keeps in view. It holds only the names and descriptions; when a request matches a description, it reads that one skill in full. That is why skills scale where a long system prompt does not.
Where skills go wrong
- The description does the choosing. Automatic matching reads the one-line “when to use this”, not the method. A description written as a summary of contents (“a guide to meeting notes”) gets picked less reliably than one written as the situation it applies to (“when the user pastes a meeting transcript or rough notes”).
- More is not better. Overlapping descriptions make the right skill harder to pick. A few sharp ones beat a full shelf.
- A skill cannot add abilities. If a skill tells the agent to run a script or call a tool it does not have, those steps simply do not happen. It is a method, not a plugin.
- An imported skill is instructions you agree to follow. There is no code in a plain skill, but text can still tell an agent to do things you would not choose. Read one before installing it, the way you would read a script.
How MindMax handles it
Skills in MindMax are files in your folder, not settings in an account: put one in the skills folder
and it counts; move it out and it stops counting. The same skill can be switched on for the
conversation, the canvas and the editor, and each surface does what it is good at — a report in chat,
branches on the canvas, a tracked change on the text you selected. Type / to call one by name, or
/new-skill to describe a method and get a draft back to read before it is saved. A SKILL.md written
for another agent tool works as a chat skill; only its text carries over.
See AI skills for the full picture.
- Decisions first, not who said what
- Every action gets an owner and a date
- No date agreed? Mark it “to be agreed”
Where a skill lives, what the AI keeps in view, and how a skill is changed or shared — all of it a file.
A skill, opened: a name, one sentence on when to use it, the method, and where it is allowed to run.
Common questions
What are agent skills?
Reusable methods written as files — usually a SKILL.md with a name, a one-line description of when to use it, and the steps — that an AI agent loads only when a task matches the description.
How are skills different from custom instructions?
Custom instructions apply to every message. A skill applies to one kind of job, is called by name or matched from its description, and is read in full only when needed — so you can keep many without crowding every conversation.
Can I use SKILL.md files from other agent tools in MindMax?
Yes, as chat skills: the name, description and method carry over. Scripts or other files in the skill’s folder are not run, and steps that rely on tools MindMax does not have will not happen.
Can a skill give an AI new abilities?
No. A skill changes how an agent approaches a job using what it can already do. Adding abilities takes tools or code, which a plain skill does not contain.