What Are Agent Skills? A Plain Guide to SKILL.md
Understand a skill folder, its task instructions and supporting files. Choose a released example, check its host and runtime, then verify one useful result.
Fastest way
Ask your AI to do it
Paste this into the AI agent you already use:
Explain Agent Skills with a small example for my work. Ask which agent I use, show what SKILL.md contains, and help me decide whether a reusable workflow would be useful.
A skill gives a repeatable task a home
SKILL.md records a name, a description and a task procedure. A complete package can also carry scripts, reference notes, example inputs and editable assets. Your request supplies the current brief; the agent selects and reads the relevant instructions.
Read instructions, files and requirements together
Inspect the folder before running it. The report generator, its sample data and the verification steps may live in different files. Copying only SKILL.md can leave the workflow incomplete. A plain prompt is useful for one task; it does not install these resources or grant tool access.
Compare a skill, a prompt and an MCP connection
Keep project rules and reusable procedures distinct
Project instruction files such as AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md carry repository context and conventions. A skill describes one reusable job. Follow the project rules as well as the package instructions, and check the host documentation for how each is loaded.
Choose by a checkable output
A browser presentation, CSV report or debugging case has a different input and verification path. Start with an actual released package and inspect its example files. A polished preview is useful for understanding the output; the installation-host label does not prove every execution step has been tested in your agent.
Choose the output, files and costs first
Install, invoke and check one result
Use the intended product and project directory. Confirm discovery, select the skill, review runtime requirements and run the documented practice input into a new folder. Verify the exported files before adapting the workflow to real data. Model access and external providers remain separate from package access.
Codex locations and CLI/IDE invocation