Skills

A skill is a written procedure for one kind of job, such as building a chart, importing a dataset or running a simulation. It can come with the scripts and reference files that job needs. When a request matches a skill, Nova or the agent at work loads it and follows it, step by step.

Open Skills from the sidebar (Skills, the star icon). The window has three tabs, and New skill at the top right:

The library

• The general library holds the built-in and installed skills that every agent using the library can load. Each agent's own skills sit in a group of their own below it.
• The toolbar: search, Filter by owner to show one group, and the round arrow to reload.
• Each card shows the name, whether it is Built-in or Installed, its version, a description, tags and the author, with an edit (pencil) and a delete (bin) button. Click a card to open it.
• New skill asks for a name (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens), creates the skill and opens it in the editor.

An empty library shows No skills yet, with buttons to Install a pack and Import a .zip.

Edit a skill

Click a card to open the editor.

• The header has a back arrow, the skill's name, an Unsaved badge when you have changes, and Save. Ctrl + S also saves.
• The file list on the left has an up arrow, the current folder, New file, New folder, and rename and delete on each item.
• SKILL.md opens first. Keep its header block at the top, with a name and a description.

The editor opens text files up to 1 MB. It does not open binary files. Deleting a skill asks first, then removes the whole folder.

Import a pack

When it finishes, Start over imports another pack and View skills opens the library.

Install from the web

Paste any of these into the bar and press Install. Installed skills go into the general library.

Under the bar, Popular packs installs Anthropic skills (documents, design, testing and more), Vercel Labs skills or a skills.sh PDF processing skill in one click. When an install finishes, Install another starts a new one.

Agents and their skills

Each agent decides which skills it knows, in the Skills section of its editor:

• Own skills belong only to that agent. Create one, upload a .zip of SKILL.md folders, or edit them in place. An agent's own skill wins over a library skill with the same name.
• General library: an agent uses every built-in, installed and project skill, or only the library skills you switch on for it.
• From other agents: borrow a skill another agent owns. It stays theirs, so their edits reach this agent too.

How Nova uses skills

Nova uses the whole general library, and there is nothing to switch on.

• Every turn, Nova sees the name and description of each skill it can use. It prefers its built-in tools, and reaches for a skill when a procedure is not covered by them.
• For each message, the skills that match it best (up to six) are suggested.
• When it needs one, it loads the skill, follows its SKILL.md, and runs any bundled scripts with its Code Runner.
• In the chat, you can ask Nova to find, install or write a skill for you. It can do all three.

To make sure a skill is used, name it, for example "use the data-visualization-charts skill to chart this".

Write a good skill

• Name: 1 to 64 characters, lowercase letters, digits and hyphens only.
• Description: up to 1,024 characters. Write it as "Use when..." so the right skill gets picked.
• Steps: keep them concrete. Say which files to read, which commands to run, and what the finished result looks like.
• Scripts: put helper scripts inside the skill folder, and say in SKILL.md when to run them.

A skill whose SKILL.md is missing its name or description, or whose name breaks the rules, does not appear in the library.

The built-in create-skill skill guides the writing of a new one. Ask Nova to create a skill for a task, and it can write it for you.

Built-in skills

Related