Skills

Teach DarcyIQ reusable expertise that persists across conversations. Skills are instruction sets — written in markdown — that tell the AI how to perform a specific task, follow a process, or apply domain knowledge. Create them yourself, ask Darcy to build one in chat, or import them using the open agentskills.io standard. Skills also lets you attach reference files — templates, scripts, datasets — that Darcy can read whenever the skill runs, and you can publish your best skills to a shared Skills Catalog so your whole organization can install them with one click.

Example: Save a "Client Proposal Writer" skill with your company's formatting rules, pricing structure, and tone guidelines, plus a proposal template and a pricing sheet attached as files. Every future conversation can load that skill instantly — no re-explaining required.

Why Skills?

Skills solve a common problem with AI assistants: repeating the same instructions across conversations. Instead of re-typing how you want proposals formatted, how your deployment pipeline works, or what your company's naming conventions are, you save those instructions once as a skill and DarcyIQ loads them on demand.

Feature	Description
Persistent	Saved to your account and available across all conversations
On-Demand	Loaded only when needed, keeping conversations fast and focused
File Attachments	Attach templates, scripts, and reference docs that Darcy reads alongside the skill instructions
Cross-Platform	Import SKILL.md packages from Anthropic, ChatGPT, and other agent platforms
Versioned	Every edit increments the version so you can track changes and roll back
Shareable	Publish to your organization's Skills Catalog for one-click install by any teammate
Toggleable	Enable or disable skills without deleting them
Import / Export	Share skills using standard SKILL.md files compatible with agentskills.io

Creating Skills

From the Skills Panel

1

Open the Skills Panel Click the Skills icon (lightbulb) in the sidebar to open the Skills drawer.

2

Click "New" Click the New button in the top-right corner of the panel.

3

Fill in the Details

Field	Description	Limits
Name	A descriptive name (auto-converted to a URL-safe slug)	2–64 chars
Description	Brief summary of what the skill does	Up to 500 chars
Skill Body	The full instructions in markdown — this is what the AI reads	Up to 15,000 chars

4

Save Click Create to save. The skill is immediately available in all conversations.

In Chat

Ask DarcyIQ to create a skill directly in conversation:

• "Create a skill called meeting-summary that formats meeting notes with attendees, action items, and next steps."

• "Save what we just discussed as a skill I can reuse."

• "Make a skill for writing customer onboarding emails in our company's tone."

DarcyIQ saves the skill to your account automatically. You can view and manage it from the Skills panel afterwards.

Import a SKILL.md File

If you have a skill file from another user, from the agentskills.io community, or from another agent platform:

1. Open the Skills Panel

2. Click Import

3. Select a .md file in the SKILL.md format

4. Review the imported name, description, and body

5. Click Create to save

Cross-platform compatibility: DarcyIQ follows the open agentskills.io standard, so SKILL.md packages built for Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, and other agent platforms can be imported and used directly — no rework required. Any file that uses YAML frontmatter with name and description fields followed by a markdown body is compatible.

File Attachments

Skills can include reference files — templates, scripts, datasets, schemas, examples, or anything else Darcy might need to do the task well. When the skill is active, those files are available to Darcy in the conversation's workspace.

Capability	Detail
File types	Markdown, text, PDFs, Office docs, images, code files, JSON/YAML/CSV — most formats
Per-file size limit	5 MB
Files per skill	Up to 100
Storage	Files are stored alongside the skill and travel with it
Workspace staging	Available to Darcy through DarcyOS — Darcy can read them, run scripts you attached, or use them as templates

Adding Files to a Skill

1

Open the Skill From the Skills panel, click any skill to open the editor.

2

Expand the Files Section Scroll to the Files section in the editor and click to expand it.

3

Upload Files Click Upload and select one or more files from your machine. Files appear in the list as soon as they finish uploading.

4

Save The skill (and its files) are saved to your account and ready to use in any conversation.

Managing Attached Files

Action	How
List	Open the skill editor and expand the Files section
Download	Click the download icon next to any file
Delete	Click the trash icon (the file is removed from the skill only)
Replace	Upload a file with the same name to overwrite the existing copy

Using Attached Files

When a skill with attachments is active in a conversation, Darcy can read those files automatically as part of executing the skill. Common patterns:

• Templates — proposal, SOW, or report templates that Darcy fills in

• Reference data — pricing sheets, product catalogs, lookup tables

• Scripts — helper scripts Darcy can run on DarcyOS

• Examples — sample outputs that show Darcy what "good" looks like

• Schemas — JSON/YAML schemas Darcy validates against

Pro Tip: For binary files (DOCX, PDF, images, scripts), Darcy uses DarcyOS to read them directly from the workspace. This means a skill with a Python helper script can have Darcy actually run that script when the skill is invoked.

Managing Skills

Skills Panel

Action	How
View all	Open the Skills panel from the sidebar
Edit	Click any skill to open the editor
Enable/Disable	Toggle the switch next to any skill
Export	Click the download icon to get a SKILL.md file
Archive	Click the trash icon — the skill moves to the archived view
Import	Click Import and select a SKILL.md file

In Chat

You can also ask DarcyIQ to manage skills conversationally:

• "Update my deploy-checklist skill with these new steps..."

• "In my deploy-checklist skill, change 'staging' to 'pre-prod'"

• "Delete the old-template skill"

• "What skills do I have?"

Disabling vs. archiving vs. deleting: Use the toggle switch to temporarily disable a skill without losing it. Archiving removes it from your list but keeps it restorable. Permanent deletion is a separate action from the archived view and cannot be undone.

Check What Depends on a Skill First

Skills can be assigned to agents, and those agents may be shared with other people. Archiving or deleting a skill takes it away from all of them.

Both the archive and the permanent-delete dialogs tell you what's at stake — how many agents use the skill, and their names, with any shared agents marked (shared). Pay attention to those: recipients of a shared agent lose the skill without any notification of their own.

See Agents for how shared agents pass their skills and integrations to recipients.

Skills Catalog

The Skills Catalog turns individual expertise into shared organizational capability. Instead of emailing SKILL.md files or recreating workflows from scratch, publish a skill once and let every teammate discover and install it with a single click — then keep everyone in sync when you publish updates.

The catalog lives right inside the Skills panel. Switch between the My Skills and Catalog tabs at the top of the panel to move between your own skills and everything published across your organization.

The catalog is your organization's. Publishing shares a skill within your own organization — never across organizations. A listing stays under the control of the organization that published it, so only they can update or unpublish it.

Example: Your solutions architect builds an "AWS Migration Assessment" skill and publishes it to the catalog. Every consultant in the org installs it in one click — and when the architect refines the methodology, everyone is prompted to update to the latest version.

Publishing a Skill

Publishing takes the latest saved version of a skill — its instructions and attached files — and creates a stable, shareable snapshot in the catalog. Installers always get that published snapshot, so your work-in-progress edits stay private until you publish them.

1

Open the skill's actions In the My Skills tab, hover a skill you own and open its actions menu (or open the skill editor).

2

Click "Publish to Catalog" The current saved version is snapshotted and listed in your organization's catalog. Your name is shown as the author.

3

Keep it current After making further edits, choose Update Catalog Version to push your latest saved version to the catalog. To pull a listing down entirely, choose Unpublish.

Who can publish: Publishing, updating a catalog listing, and unpublishing all require skill ownership plus the Publish to Skill Library permission. This is an opt-in permission that administrators grant through role management, so your organization controls exactly who can share skills org-wide.

Publish after uploading files: A published snapshot only includes files that existed when the version was saved. If you add attachments to a skill, save a new version and then publish (or update the catalog version) so installers receive those files.

Previewing Before You Install

You don't have to install a skill to find out what's in it. Open any catalog listing to read it first — its description, its full instructions, and the files attached to it — in a read-only view marked preview only.

Add stays available from the preview header, so you can read the skill and install it without going back to the list. Once installed the button reads Added, changing to Update when the author publishes a newer version.

Installing a Skill

Anyone with skill access can browse the Catalog tab, search by name or description, and install what they need.

• One-click install — Click Add on a catalog skill to copy it into your own My Skills list. Darcy copies the instructions and all attached files into a brand-new skill that belongs to you — edit it freely without affecting the original.

• No duplicates — You can't install the same catalog skill twice, and you can't install your own published skill. If a name collides with an existing skill, Darcy automatically gives your copy a unique name.

• Update notifications — When the author publishes a newer version, your installed copy shows that an update is available. Click Update to overwrite your copy with the latest published snapshot in one step.

Version Control & Rollbacks

Every catalog action is captured in a skill's version history, so nothing is ever lost:

• Installing a catalog skill creates an initial catalog_install version snapshot.

• Updating an installed skill from the catalog creates a catalog_update snapshot before applying the new content.

Because each of these is a full snapshot, you can open the skill's version history and roll back to a previous version at any time if an update doesn't work as expected. If you archive an installed catalog skill, it also appears under the archived view with a Restore action.

Using Skills in Conversations

DarcyIQ is automatically aware of your active skills at the start of every conversation. You don't need to list or reference them — DarcyIQ already knows what's available.

To use a skill, simply ask:

• "Use my client-proposal-writer skill to draft a proposal for Acme Corp."

• "Follow my meeting-summary skill to format these notes."

DarcyIQ may also load a relevant skill on its own when it recognizes your request matches one.

Chat Quick-Toggle

The chat input area includes a skills toggle where you can enable or disable specific skills before sending a message — no need to open the full Skills panel.

Integration with Agents

Skills work alongside Agents. When you chat with an agent that has its own custom instructions, your skills layer additional expertise on top of the agent's configuration. Skills are also available during scheduled agent runs.

Skills an Agent Brings With It

Skills assigned to an agent load automatically whenever that agent is selected — you don't have to switch them on. In the chat skills toggle they appear already enabled and locked, badged Enabled by {agent name}, and you can't turn them off while that agent is in use.

This applies even if you have the same skill disabled for your own general chat: the agent's configuration wins for the duration of the conversation. Switch to a different agent, and the lock lifts.

Use Cases

Category	Examples
Process & Templates	Proposal formatting, meeting note structure, code review checklists
Domain Knowledge	Product specs, compliance rules, client account context
Workflow Automation	Deployment checklists, incident response procedures, onboarding steps
Communication	Email templates, tone guidelines, client-specific language preferences

Best Practices

1. Be specific: "Format prices as USD with two decimal places" beats "Format prices correctly"

2. Use structure: Break instructions into sections with headers and lists

3. Include examples: Show what good output looks like

4. Keep it focused: One skill per task or domain — don't combine unrelated instructions

5. Start small: Begin with one or two high-value skills for the processes you explain most often, then expand from there

Pro Tip: If you find yourself repeating the same instructions across multiple conversations, that's a great candidate for a skill.