Agent skills explained: An FAQ

This post introduces and explains 'agent skills,' a new open format for packaging reusable instructions, context, and decision-making logic for AI agents. It details how skills solve problems like prompt drift, lost workflow conventions, and instruction sprawl by providing a centralized, versionable, and discoverable mechanism for agent expertise. The post compares skills to MCP servers, tools, rules, and system prompts, highlighting their complementary roles. It provides examples of skills in various domains (React, Postgres, Copywriting, Remotion), explains the structure of a skill package (SKILL.md, scripts, references), and outlines installation methods (local directory, CLI) and discovery via skills.sh. It also describes how agents load and use skills, and the process for creating custom skills.