Skills

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that teaches the agent one kind of task: how to fill PDF forms, how your team writes changelogs, how to deploy. The agent sees each skill's name and description and reads the full instructions only when a task calls for them, so you can keep many skills without crowding the conversation.

Skills work the same in the CLI, the VS Code extension and the Desktop app. Instructions that apply to every task in a project belong in AGENTS.md instead.

Create your first skill

1. Make a folder for the skill under .abacusai/skills/ in your project, or under ~/.abacusai/skills/ to use it in every project.

   mkdir -p .abacusai/skills/changelog

2. Write .abacusai/skills/changelog/SKILL.md:

   ---
   description: Write a changelog from the commits since the last tag. Use when asked for a changelog, release notes, or "what shipped".
   argument-hint: "[since-ref]"
   ---
   
   1. Run `git log --oneline $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD`, or from the ref the user gave.
   2. Group commits into Features, Fixes and Internal.
   3. Write one line per user-visible change, past tense, no commit hashes.

3. Start a new session and try it both ways: type /changelog, or ask "what shipped since the last release?" and let the agent pick it.

The skill appears in /skills list in the CLI and in the Skills section of the VS Code settings.

Use a skill

You type	What happens
"Write the changelog"	The agent matches your request against skill descriptions and reads the one that fits
/changelog v2.1.0	The agent uses that skill, with the rest of the line as your request
"Fix the bug, then follow /changelog for the summary"	A /skill-name anywhere in a message works the same way

Typing / opens a picker with commands and skills. Built-in commands such as /model win over a skill with the same name, so give your skills names no command uses.

The description is all the agent has to decide with, so say what the skill does and when to use it.

Where skills live

Scope	Folder	Who gets it
Project	<project>/.abacusai/skills/ or <project>/.agents/skills/	Everyone who opens the project. Commit it.
Global	~/.abacusai/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/	You, in every project
Built-in	Ships with the product	Everyone. See Built-in skills.

The project folder is the one the CLI was started in, or the first VS Code workspace folder. Parent folders and .claude/skills are not searched; use /import to bring Claude Code skills across.

When two skills share a name, a project skill replaces a global one, and a global skill replaces a built-in one. A project skill only replaces another once you have trusted the folder, so a cloned repository cannot swap out /review for its own version.

A skill is either skills/<name>/SKILL.md or a single file, skills/<name>.md. Skills can also sit in group folders, such as skills/<group>/<name>/SKILL.md. The name you type after / comes from the folder or file name.

SKILL.md reference

A SKILL.md starts with a YAML header between two --- lines, followed by the instructions in Markdown.

Field	Required	What it does
description	yes	What the skill does and when to use it. A skill without one is skipped.
name	no	Display name. Defaults to the folder name.
argument-hint	no	Shown after /skill-name in the picker, such as <file.pdf> or [since-ref]. A hint that starts with < marks the argument as required.
user-invocable	no	false hides the skill from the / picker. The agent can still choose it.
disable-model-invocation	no	true stops the agent choosing the skill on its own. You can still run it with /name.
allowed-tools	no	Tools to approve when you run the skill with /name. See Tools a skill may use.
metadata	no	String key-value pairs. short-description sets the summary shown in the picker.
license, compatibility	no	Accepted so skills written to the Agent Skills specification load unchanged

Skills can include scripts and reference files next to SKILL.md. The agent knows where the skill lives and can open them.

The agent is offered up to 100 skills to choose from on its own. Past that you see a notice, and the / picker still lists every skill.

Tools a skill may use

allowed-tools lists tools to approve, in the same syntax as a permission rule:

allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Bash(git status *), mcp__github__list_issues

These tools run without asking for the rest of the turn, but only when you run the skill yourself with /name. A skill the agent picks on its own still runs, and its tools ask as usual. allowed-tools approves tools; it does not limit the skill to them.

• Your deny and ask rules still win.
• Nothing is saved to your settings.
• A project skill approves nothing until you trust the folder.

allowed-tools changes what runs without asking, so read it before installing a third-party skill.

When changes take effect

Edits to an existing skill's instructions apply the next time the agent uses it. A new skill, a deleted one, or a changed description shows up once you open /skills list in the CLI or the Skills section of the VS Code settings, or start a new session.

Install from the marketplace

Search and install community skills from skills.sh in the CLI or VS Code. Skills that failed a security audit are hidden, and the audit results are shown on the rest.

CLI command	What it does
/skills list	Show installed skills grouped by project, global and built-in
/skills add <search>	Search and install into <project>/.agents/skills/
/skills add-global <search>	Search and install into ~/.agents/skills/
/skills remove <name>	Delete an installed skill
/skills update	Update every marketplace skill that changed

In VS Code, open Abacus Settings and scroll to Skills. Browse Marketplace opens the search, with a Workspace or Global destination. Check for updates marks skills that changed. The pencil icon opens a skill's SKILL.md and the trash icon deletes it.

Updates never touch skills you wrote yourself.

Built-in skills

These ship with the product. Run one with /name, or describe what you want and the agent picks it. A global skill with the same name replaces a built-in one.

Skill	What it does
/init	Writes this project's AGENTS.md by studying the codebase. --refresh updates an existing one.
/review	Reviews the current diff, or a PR number, branch or path, for bugs. --fix applies the findings.
/security-review	Audits changes for exploitable vulnerabilities and reports only findings it can trace to a real impact
/simplify	Simplifies and cleans up a change without changing its behavior
/verify	Proves a change works by running it end to end
/browser-use	Drives a Chromium-based browser you have installed: opens pages, clicks, fills forms and reads results. CLI and VS Code.
/doctor	Diagnoses an unhealthy CLI install: stale installs, config files that fail to parse, repeated sign-outs, certificate errors. Narrow it with /doctor config, /doctor network and similar. CLI only.
/setup	Sets up this machine for the CLI: Shift+Enter for newlines, terminal titles, tmux key passthrough, notifications. CLI only.
/abacus-help	Answers questions about Abacus.AI itself: installing, signing in, plans and credits

CoWork in the Desktop app adds skills for Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files.

Importing from Claude Code

/import in the CLI copies your Claude Code skills and custom commands, along with your MCP servers and settings. Run /import --dry-run first to see the plan.

Claude Code source	Written to
<project>/.claude/skills/	<project>/.agents/skills/
~/.claude/skills/	~/.agents/skills/
<project>/.claude/commands/**/*.md	<project>/.agents/skills/, one skill per command
~/.claude/commands/**/*.md	~/.agents/skills/, one skill per command

A command in a subfolder gets a dashed name: .claude/commands/git/commit.md becomes /git-commit. Nothing is overwritten. A skill whose name is taken, including by a built-in such as review, is skipped and reported.

Differences from Claude Code and Codex

The SKILL.md format is the same.

Topic	Claude Code	Codex	Here
Project folder	.claude/skills/	.agents/skills/, in the current folder and each parent up to the repository root	.abacusai/skills/ or .agents/skills/, at the project root only
Your own folder	~/.claude/skills/	~/.agents/skills/	~/.abacusai/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/
Run a skill yourself	/skill-name	$skill-name or /skills	/skill-name
Legacy commands	.claude/commands/ read as skills		Converted to skills by /import
context, agent, model, hooks fields	Supported		Ignored
agents/openai.yaml		UI metadata and allow_implicit_invocation	interface.short_description sets the picker summary, and policy.allow_implicit_invocation: false works like disable-model-invocation: true

Sources: Claude Code's Skills and Codex's Build skills.

In print mode and CI

abacusai -p loads the same skills as an interactive session. A /skill-name in the prompt runs that skill and applies its allowed-tools:

abacusai -p "/changelog v2.1.0" > CHANGELOG-draft.md

In a folder that is not trusted, project skills load but their allowed-tools approve nothing. See Scripting and CI.

Sharing skills and trust

Skills are files, so share them like code: commit .abacusai/skills/ or .agents/skills/ to the project, keep your own in ~/.abacusai/skills/, or publish a skill on GitHub so others can install it through skills.sh. Keep secrets out of skill files. Put credentials in environment variables or an MCP server's configuration.

A skill is instructions the agent will follow, and its scripts are code the agent may run. Read SKILL.md, its scripts and its allowed-tools before you install a third-party skill. Project skills arrive with every clone, which is why workspace trust holds back their allowed-tools and stops them replacing a built-in or global skill until you trust the folder.

To turn a skill off for everyone in a project, add a deny rule that names it to the project's .abacusai/config.json and commit it:

{ "permissions": { "deny": ["Skill(deploy)"] } }

A denied skill is not offered to the agent, /deploy does not run it, and it approves none of its allowed-tools. Skill(skill:dep*) matches by pattern.

To use your own marketplace server that implements the skills.sh API, set SKILLS_API_URL, and SKILLS_API_TOKEN if it needs one.

Troubleshooting

My skill is not listed

• The header has no description, or is not valid YAML. An unquoted : in a value is the usual cause: write description: "Deploy: staging or prod".
• The file is not named SKILL.md.
• The CLI was started in a subfolder, so the project's skills folder was not found. Start it at the repository root.
• The skill was added during the session. Open /skills list to rescan.
• It is a project skill whose name matches a global or built-in skill, and the folder is not trusted yet.
• A deny rule such as Skill(<name>) hides it.

Typing /name runs something else

A built-in command has that name, and commands win. Rename the skill's folder.

The agent does not use my skill

Make the description say what the skill does and list the requests that should trigger it. Until then, run it with /name.

A skill's allowed-tools still asks

The approval applies only when you run the skill with /name, only for that turn, and only in a trusted folder. A deny or ask rule for the same tool still wins.

For further help, reach out at support@abacus.ai.