Skills
A skill gives an agent instructions for a kind of work, such as researching a topic,
writing meeting notes, or managing email. It is a folder with a SKILL.md file and optional
scripts, templates, and reference material.
Use skills to teach a repeatable procedure without putting the whole procedure in every prompt.
Jazz is compatible with Agent Skills.
Use a skill
Enter /skills in a conversation to browse available skills. Read one, then ask for a task
it covers, such as:
Use the deep-research skill to compare these three approaches. Cite the sources
and recommend one for this project.Jazz loads matching instructions when needed. For email, calendar, and other external systems, install and configure the underlying tools first; a skill supplies instructions, while the agent’s tool permissions still control what it can do. See Email and calendar for a working setup.
Progressive loading
Jazz loads skill instructions on demand:
| Level | What the model sees | Loaded by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every skill’s name and one-line description | always, in the system prompt |
| 2 | One skill’s full SKILL.md | load_skill |
| 3 | One referenced file inside it | load_skill_section |
find_skills searches the index when the one-line descriptions are not enough to decide.
Skill locations
| Source | Path | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | ships with Jazz | everywhere |
| Shared | ~/.agents/skills/ | other tools that read this directory |
| Global | ~/.jazz/skills/ | all your projects |
| Project | ./skills/ | this repository only |
On a name collision the more specific source wins, so a project can override a built-in skill.
Jazz ships skills for research, journaling, meeting notes, email, calendar, Obsidian, creating personas, workflows and skills themselves, and delegating work to other local Jazz agents (delegate-to-jazz) so a task can run on the cheaper, local, or more capable model.
In an interactive terminal, /skills opens a searchable catalog of built-in, global,
shared-agent, project, and plugin skills. Type to filter by name, source, or description;
use Up and Down to choose a skill, Enter to read its full description and source
(and its location when file-backed),
and Escape to return to the list or conversation. Non-interactive sessions print the
complete catalog instead.
The skill marketplace
The Jazz website’s Marketplace publishes reviewed skills alongside personas, workflows, and plugins. A marketplace skill is an instruction artifact: it does not add tools, credentials, network access, or approval authority. Its instructions can still steer an agent, so read the content and its source before installing it.
Install a skill from the cached catalog with jazz skill browse, jazz skill search, or
jazz skill add <name>. Jazz shows the complete SKILL.md, its source URL, and metadata before
writing it to ~/.jazz/skills/<name>/SKILL.md; non-interactive installs must pass --yes. The
installer accepts only a single reviewed SKILL.md and never executes files from the catalog.
Each marketplace skill page shows its jazz skill add <name> command alongside the full
instruction source, so you can review and install it without manually copying files.
After the first fetch, you can browse the cached catalog offline. To use an internal
library, set JAZZ_LIBRARY_URL.
Remove a global skill with jazz skill remove <name>. Jazz confirms before deleting the
whole ~/.jazz/skills/<name>/ directory, including its assets; non-interactive removal requires
--yes. Built-in, project, shared-agent, and plugin skills are outside this command’s scope.
Linked skill roots or directories are refused. Removing a global override may reveal a skill
with the same name from another source on the next run.
Skill, tool, or workflow
- A skill is know-how. Use it for a procedure the model should follow.
- A tool is a capability. Use it when the model needs to do something new.
- A workflow is a whole prompt plus its run settings. Use it when a complete job should be invoked or scheduled as a unit.
Related
- Tool inventory:
find_skills,load_skill,load_skill_section - Workflows: packaging a prompt rather than a procedure
- Agents: which skills an agent can reach