Skill library

A skill packages a repeatable way of working: writing release notes, checking a brief, or preparing a document in your house style. It contains a SKILL.md instruction file and, optionally, supporting files. Use Settings > Skills to maintain it once, then equip the agents that need it.

Every member can create a skill. You can edit your own; editing or deleting another person's shared skill requires an organization administrator.

Create a small skill

1. 1

   Name the skill and explain when to use it

   Open Settings > Skills, then Add skill > Blank skill. Enter a Name such as brief-summary and a Description:

   text

   Summarize a project brief into its review date, owner, and open questions.
   Use when someone asks for a handover or a quick check of a brief.

   The name is a unique slug: lowercase letters, digits, and single hyphens, up to 64 characters. The description tells the model when the skill is relevant. Click Create to add it and open its editor.

2. 2

   Write the instructions

   Under Instructions (body), give a short procedure and a recognizable result. For example:

   markdown

   Read the supplied brief. Return a table with three rows: review date,
   owner, and open questions. Quote the sentence supporting each answer.
   Write "Not stated" where the brief supplies no answer. Do not infer a
   launch date from a review date.

   Add reference files only when they help perform the procedure. Keep detailed examples in those files and tell the agent when to open them.

3. 3

   Choose the audience and save

   New skills start with Organization visibility. Choose Teams under Visibility and select at least one team if the content belongs to a narrower audience. Add an icon or labels if they will help people find the skill, then click Save.

   Creating a skill does not equip an agent automatically. Open the intended project's agent and select the skill in its equipment. Run a small task with a known input and check the result against the instructions.

Import an existing bundle

Use Add skill > Upload zip or Upload folder. The bundle must contain SKILL.md at its root. References, assets, and scripts can accompany it:

brief-summary/
├── SKILL.md
└── references/
    └── example-brief.md

The preview shows metadata, sharing, license, and the file list before Upload bundle writes anything. Check the contents and audience. Missing visibility means organization-wide sharing. If the name already exists, Tale asks whether to replace that skill; replacement affects the agents that use it.

Understand sharing

The project's access decides its equipment, even if you personally can read more skills. An organization-wide project can equip organization skills. Legacy private skills remain visible to their owner, but cannot be equipped; new private skills are not accepted.

Narrowing visibility asks for confirmation because some agents may lose access. Deleting a skill has the same practical consequence: runs that require the missing bundle cannot stage it. Check where a shared skill is used before restricting or retiring it.

File reference

A minimal SKILL.md looks like this:

---
name: brief-summary
description: Summarize a project brief. Use for brief handovers and checks.
visibility: org
---

Read the supplied brief. Report its review date, owner, and open questions.
Quote supporting text and mark missing information as "Not stated".

Tale preserves unrecognized frontmatter keys. The frontmatter limit is 16 KB and the complete SKILL.md limit is 512 KB. Keep frequently read instructions much smaller than these ceilings.

Update and troubleshoot

Open a row to edit its description, instructions, labels, and visibility. The Bundle tree lets you inspect supporting files. Changes are not pinned per agent: later staging uses the current bundle, so test shared changes with a representative task.

If an agent cannot find the skill, check that it is equipped and visible to the project. If it ignores an equipped skill, state explicitly in the task which skill to use and check the result against its instructions. Read Skills on agents for how the equipped bundle is staged and presented to the agent.

For an import error, check that SKILL.md is at the root, its frontmatter is valid, and its name is a valid slug. The error names rejected paths or size limits. To retire a bundle, open it and choose Delete skill after checking the affected agents.