> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mindset.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create a Skill

> Create a reusable Skill in the Skills section and attach it to a Plan so your agent can draw on it.

A Skill is a piece of knowledge your agent can draw on when it's relevant: a set of guidelines, a framework, a tone of voice, or reference material. This guide walks you through creating one and attaching it to a Plan.

## Open Skills

From the Agent Management Studio dashboard, select **Skills** in the left-hand menu.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mindsetai/images/skills%201.png" alt="" />

The Skills page lists any Skills you've already created. Select **New Skill** to start a new one.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mindsetai/images/skills%203.png" alt="" />

## Name your Skill and set when the agent uses it

On the **Settings** tab, fill in three fields.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mindsetai/images/skills%202.png" alt="" />

**Name.** A clear name for the Skill, such as "Onboarding equipment knowledge."

**Handle.** How your agent identifies the Skill. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, and start with a letter, for example `onboarding_equipment_knowledge`. A handle must be unique across your Skills and Plans, and across the agent's other tools if it has any.

**Description.** How the agent decides when to use the Skill. Be specific about the scenario or request that should trigger it, for example "Use this when someone asks what equipment a new employee gets or how to request it." The description is about *when* to reach for the Skill, not what's in it.

## Write the Skill content

The **Instructions** tab is where the Skill itself lives. This is the knowledge, guidelines, or reference information the agent follows when the Skill is active. Write it in plain text. You can keep it short, or set out detailed guidance, including what the agent should and shouldn't do, with examples. One to two pages is the sweet spot, and that's where Skills are most effective. Industry standards treat around 8 to 10 pages (roughly 500 lines) as an upper limit, so if a Skill grows past that, split it into separate Skills.

<img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/mindsetai/images/skills%204.png" alt="" />

For the onboarding example, the instructions might read: "Standard equipment for a new employee is a MacBook Pro 14-inch, a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Remote employees also receive a webcam and headset. Equipment requests go to IT through the requests channel."

So the two fields do different jobs: the **description** tells the agent *when* to use the Skill, and the **instructions** are *what* the agent draws on once it does.

## Attach the Skill to a Plan

Open the **Plans** tab and attach the Skill to one or more Plans. The Skill is then available to the agent while that Plan is running.

You can also attach a Skill directly to an agent from the agent's own setup, which makes it available across all of that agent's conversations rather than only during a Plan. See the [Skills overview](/features/build/skills) for the difference.

## Edit a Skill later

You can reopen a Skill at any time to update its content, change when the agent uses it, or adjust which Plans it's attached to.

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Create a Plan" icon="plus" href="/build-optimize/AMS/create-a-plan">
    Build a Plan and attach this Skill to it.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Skills overview" icon="lightbulb" href="/features/build/skills">
    How Skills work and how they sit alongside Plans.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>