Skills

#What a Skill Is

A skill is a small, agent-local procedure with three fields:

• name: lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens; starts with a letter; at most 64 characters;
• description: selection guidance, at most 240 characters; and
• instructions: the procedure body, at most 12,000 characters.

An agent can store up to 32 skills. Skills do not add Python tools or execute code. They provide reviewed procedural context for the existing data-agent capabilities.

#Manage Skills from Python

from daita import Agent
 
agent = await Agent.open("atlas")
try:
    await agent.save_skill(
        "monthly-revenue-review",
        "Compare monthly net revenue and explain material changes.",
        """1. Confirm the requested month and comparison period.
2. Use the reviewed net-revenue definition.
3. Group results by region.
4. Call out changes greater than 10 percent.""",
    )
 
    for summary in await agent.list_skills():
        print(summary.name, summary.description)
 
    skill = await agent.read_skill("monthly-revenue-review")
    deleted = await agent.delete_skill("monthly-revenue-review")
finally:
    await agent.close()

save_skill() returns True when it creates a skill and False when it replaces one. delete_skill() returns whether a skill existed.

#Progressive Disclosure

The base model context contains a bounded skill index—names and descriptions only. When a procedure is relevant, the model uses the read-only skill_view capability to load the full instructions.

This keeps unrelated procedures out of the prompt while still making their selection criteria visible.

#Agent-Proposed Changes

During a run, the model can propose skill_save or skill_delete. Both are local write capabilities and require the configured approval handler. Direct Agent.save_skill() and Agent.delete_skill() calls are already explicit caller actions.

#Terminal Commands

daita skills list atlas
daita skills show atlas monthly-revenue-review
daita skills save atlas monthly-revenue-review \
  --description "Compare monthly net revenue." \
  --instructions-file ./monthly-review.md
daita skills edit atlas monthly-revenue-review
daita skills delete atlas monthly-revenue-review

Interactive chat also supports /skills, /skills show, /skills create, /skills edit, /skills delete, and /skills use.

#Choose the Right Store