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Skills are instruction files that teach your managed agent how to handle specific tasks. When the system prompt is not detailed enough for a multi-step workflow or a domain-specific process, a skill fills the gap.

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What a skill looks like

A skill is a SKILL.md file written in Markdown. It contains step-by-step instructions the AI platform follows when a relevant situation comes up in a conversation. A skill might describe:
  • How to triage a support ticket and assign it to the right team.
  • How to walk a user through an onboarding checklist.
  • How to pull data from an MCP server and format it as a summary.
The AI platform reads the skill and applies the instructions when it decides the skill is relevant to the current conversation turn.

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Add a skill

  1. Open the Novu dashboard and go to your managed agent’s detail page.
  2. Open the Skills section in the agent settings.
  3. Select GitHub URL as the source.
  4. Paste the public repository URL. You can point to:
    • The root of a repo (Novu looks for SKILL.md at the top level).
    • A specific branch or subfolder (e.g. https://github.com/org/repo/tree/main/skills/triage).
  5. Click Upload.
Novu downloads the files, bundles them, and sends them to the AI platform. The platform assigns a stable skill ID.

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Versioning

If you upload a skill with the same display title as an existing one, the platform creates a new version automatically. The agent always uses the latest version.

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Remove a skill

To remove a skill, go to the Skills section and delete it from the list. The agent stops using the skill on the next conversation turn.

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Tips for writing good skills

  • Be specific: describe the exact steps the agent should follow, not just the goal.
  • Include examples: show sample inputs and expected outputs when possible.
  • Keep it focused: one skill per task. A skill that tries to cover too many scenarios becomes harder for the model to apply correctly.
  • Test with real conversations: send messages that should trigger the skill and check whether the agent follows the instructions.

Configure MCP servers

Enable external tools for your managed agent.

Concepts

Learn about connectors, MCP servers, skills, and how conversations work.

Quickstart

Create a managed agent with Claude and connect it to Slack.