Skills in Unique AI Chat
2 min read
This feature is currently in BETA. It may change significantly before general availability. Documentation may lag behind feature updates. Use in production environments at your own discretion. Please refer to our Upgrade and Release Process for more information.
Skills in Unique AI Chat
Skills let Unique AI Chat load specialized instructions only when they are useful for the current request. Instead of putting every possible workflow instruction into the space prompt, skills keep the default conversation lightweight and make the agent load task-specific instructions only when they are needed.
For example, a space may support generating Word documents. Most user messages do not need Word generation instructions. With skills, those instructions can live in a dedicated skill and are loaded only when the user asks for that workflow or when the agent determines that the skill is relevant.
Unique AI Chat follows the general Agent Skills concept of progressive disclosure: the agent first sees available skill names and descriptions, and the full SKILL.md instructions are loaded only when a matching skill is activated.
What Skills Are
A skill is a reusable instruction set for a specific task, workflow, domain, or output format. Skills can help the agent behave consistently for repeated work such as data analysis, email drafting, factsheet review, document generation, or domain-specific review workflows.
Skills are different from general space instructions:
Space instructions | Skills |
|---|---|
Always active for the space. | Loaded only when relevant. |
Best for rules that should apply to every message. | Best for task-specific workflows and templates. |
Visible to the agent throughout the chat. | Discovered by name and description, then loaded when activated. |
How Skills Are Used
When a space has skills configured, Unique AI Chat can use them in three ways.
Activation mode | How it works |
|---|---|
Automatic | The agent decides that a skill is relevant and loads it before answering. |
Plus menu | Select a skill from the Skills submenu in the chat input menu. |
Slash command | Type |
When you force a skill with the plus menu or slash command, the selected skill is included before the first model response. The skill token remains visible in your message, for example /analyze-data.
When a skill is loaded, the step log shows the activated skill, for example Using /analyze-data skill.
When to Use a Skill
Use a skill when you want the agent to follow a specific workflow or format. For example:
Use an email-drafting skill when you want the response in a professional email format.
Use a factsheet-analysis skill when you want consistent extraction and review steps.
Use a word-generation skill when the task needs special formatting instructions.
You do not need to select a skill for every message. If no skill is forced, the agent can still decide whether one of the available skills is relevant.
For Administrators
Skills must be created and enabled for a space before users can invoke them. Administrators can find setup instructions, SKILL.md format requirements, limitations, and configuration details in Skills.