Creating Skills

Two ways to create a Skill: write the instructions yourself, or generate them in chat with the Skill Creator.

You need the Member role or higher to create Skills.

Method 1: Write instructions yourself

Go to Skills in the sidebar and click New skill. Fill in the following fields:

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	A short, human-readable title, for example "PDF report" (up to 120 characters).
Description	No	One or two sentences describing when the agent should use this Skill. The agent reads this to decide whether to activate it.
Instructions	No	The actual content: what to do, how to format the output, what to include or avoid. Plain text or Markdown.
Visibility	Yes	Private (only you) or Workspace (everyone in your workspace).

The handle (slug) is generated automatically from the name and is unique per owner.

The description field

The description is critical. The agent reads it on every turn to decide whether this Skill is relevant. A vague description causes the Skill to activate at the wrong time, or not at all.

	Example
Too vague	Status reports.
Effective	Use when asked for a status update, progress summary, or weekly report.

Write the description as if explaining to a colleague when they should reach for this Skill. Include concrete trigger phrases.

Method 2: Create with chat (Skill Creator)

Odeus ships a built-in Skill Creator System Skill. Describe what you want in plain language and Odeus drafts the name, description, and instructions for you. This is the fastest starting point if you are not sure how to phrase the instructions — review and edit everything before saving.

Writing good instructions

The quality of a Skill depends almost entirely on the quality of its instructions.

• Be specific about the output. Do not say "summarize things." Say "write a three-section summary with: (1) key decisions made, (2) open questions, (3) next steps. Each section should be 3 to 5 bullet points."
• Write the description as if explaining to a new colleague. Vague descriptions cause the agent to activate the Skill at the wrong time, or not at all.
• Test before sharing. Create the Skill, attach it to an Agent, start a new chat, and see whether the agent behaves as expected. Adjust based on what you observe.
• Keep instructions focused. A Skill that does one thing well is more reliable than one that tries to cover many cases.
• Include concrete trigger phrases in the description. Examples: "when asked for updates," "when drafting a reply to a customer," "when summarizing a meeting."

Versions

Odeus keeps a version history for each Skill. When you update a Skill's instructions, the previous version is retained and the version number increments, so you can see how a Skill has changed over time.

Limitations

• Skills do not have memory across sessions. Instructions are re-read fresh at the start of each run. For persistent memory, use Chat Memory.
• A Skill on its own only provides instructions. Unless it bundles the tools needed for a task, a Skill cannot fetch live data — it shapes how the agent responds rather than connecting to external systems by itself.