Skills

Skills are instructions you hand the AI: for a recurring task, you write down once how the result should look, and the AI follows it in matching chats. This page lists your skills, lets you switch each one on or off, and explains when a skill takes effect.

Skills are meant for specific tasks and are not loaded into every chat. Instructions that should apply to every chat go into your profile settings instead, in the Personal information and Communication preferences fields.

How skills work

Every skill has a name, a description, and the actual instructions (its content). In each new chat, the AI initially knows only the name and description of every active skill, a kind of table of contents. It reads the full instructions only once your request matches the description.

There is a reason for this: if every skill's full content were loaded into every chat, each conversation would be bloated and slower. Instead, the AI loads only what it needs right now.

Skills work while the sandbox is active, that is in agent mode.

When a skill is applied

Whether an active skill takes effect is the AI's own decision, based solely on the description. If your request matches, it loads the instructions and follows them. You do not confirm anything, do not call a skill by hand, and do not memorize names, even with many skills.

You can see it in the chat: when the AI applies a skill, the answer shows a work step in which it opens the skill's instructions. That tells you a skill is in effect, and which one.

An active skill is not forced into every chat. It is applied when the request matches its description, and left alone otherwise.

The description decides

Because the AI sees only the description before loading a skill, the description is the most important part. It should say concretely what the skill does and for which requests it is needed.

If a skill is not applied despite a matching request, the description is almost always too vague. You can sharpen it right in the chat, for example: "Read the Monthly Report skill and improve its description so it is recognized for requests like 'status report', 'project update', or 'monthly summary'."

Example of a good description

"Turns bullet points into a monthly report in the department's format. Use whenever the user wants to write a monthly report, status report, or project update."

Concrete, with a clear task and the keywords a matching request will contain.

Example of a weak description

"Helps with reports."

Too general. The AI cannot tell which request is meant and will leave the skill unused when in doubt.

What makes a good skill

A skill works best for one bounded, recurring task with a clear result: a specific report format, a quote template, a review checklist. Avoid the do-everything skill that tries to cover many unrelated things at once. Several focused skills are recognized more reliably than one that attempts everything.

Should something apply to every chat?

Skills are meant for when they are needed, not as a standing instruction. If some text should apply to every chat, such as your role, your field, or your preferred tone, it does not belong in a skill but in your profile. Under Settings → Profile, the Personal information and Communication preferences fields hold what is taken into account in all chats.

Skill packages

At the top of the page, Skill packages group skills by area of work, for example law or tax. Each package has a switch, so you can turn a whole area on or off for yourself. Click a package to filter the skill list below to it. In an organization, your administrators decide which packages are available to you at all.

General packages are switched on by default, packages for specific professions are off until someone switches them on. Your organisation sets the default for all members under Skill packages. Within what is available, your own choice here wins. That is why two colleagues can see different system skills. If a skill you read about is missing, its package is probably switched off for you.

Find a skill

The skill list is split into three sections:

My skills: skills you created yourself.
Shared with me: skills another user or group shared with you.
Available system skills: skills provided by DeutschlandGPT. You cannot edit them, but you can switch them off for your conversations.

Enable or disable a skill

Each skill card has a toggle. "Active" means the skill is available to the AI, not that it is applied in every chat. Switch a skill off when you do not need it for now but want to keep it for later. Normally you leave your skills enabled.

Create a skill

Click Create skill and choose Write inline to write it in the editor, or Upload .md or .zip file to import a definition file. Pay particular attention to a precise description, since it determines whether the skill will later kick in automatically.

A definition file is either a single SKILL.md or a .zip archive with SKILL.md at its root plus optional helper files such as templates, scripts or reference data. Uploads can be up to 50 MB. The header of SKILL.md holds the name and the description:

MARKDOWN

---
name: invoice-generator
description: Use this skill when the user wants to create or edit invoices in the company's standard format.
---

# How to generate an invoice

A name written like a title, such as "Invoice Generator", is converted to lowercase with hyphens on upload. The original spelling is kept as the display name.

You can also ask the AI in the chat to draft a skill for you and then upload the result.

If you do not see a button to create skills, your role does not include that permission. Ask your administrator.

Edit a skill

If you own a skill or have edit access, clicking its card opens the editor. There you can change the name and description and write the full instructions right in the editor, which supports Markdown. If you prefer, upload a definition file to replace the entire content at once. Skills shared with you read-only cannot be edited.

You share a skill of your own with people or groups through its Share dialog. To make it available to your whole organisation, give the All Users group Read access. Read access means people may use the skill, not change it.

Where a skill applies

Under Available in you choose where the AI uses a skill: Everywhere, Chat only (web, desktop and apps) or Office add-ins only (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook). The setting applies to everyone you share the skill with.

An example: a skill that tells the chat how to reply to emails through the Outlook connection belongs on Chat only. The Outlook add-in answers the open email with its own reply window and does not need those instructions.

Download a skill

Click a skill card to open its detail view. The download icon next to a file name saves the definition file exactly as it is stored, with the name and description in the file's header. That means you can upload it again unchanged via Upload .md or .zip file, for example after editing it elsewhere or keeping it in version control. The same applies to a skill's helper files.

Download is available for your own skills and for skills shared with you, including read-only shares. System skills can be viewed but not downloaded.

Delete a skill

Open a skill you own and use the delete option in the editor. Skills shared with you cannot be deleted from this page.

Skill or custom application?

A skill describes how a task is done. It is loaded only when a request matches and works in any chat. A custom application defines who the assistant is: its instructions and files are present in every message of that one chat. Use a skill for a format, a procedure or a checklist, and a custom application for a configured assistant with a fixed role.