# Add a skill

A skill is a set of standing instructions agents read and follow: a house style, a way of writing, a convention your team keeps. Each skill is an ordinary markdown file in your org-wide brain, so you can read it, edit it and see its history like anything else.

A skill shapes how agents write. It can't change what's true, and it can't loosen a protected folder.

## Write a skill

1. Go to **Settings** and select **Skills**.
2. Select **New skill**.
3. Under **Who follows it**, choose:
   - **Everyone here**: applies across the organisation. Only admins and the owner can add these.
   - **Just me**: applies only in your own sessions.
4. Write the skill in markdown. Start with a heading that says what it's for, then the rules themselves.
5. Check the **Name**. It's filled in from your heading, and becomes the file name.
6. Select **Save skill**.

The skill appears on the **Skills** page. A skill for everyone is saved switched off, so choose where it applies next.

## Choose where an organisation skill applies

Each skill on the **Skills** page has switches:

- **Chat**: anything the assistant writes into your knowledge when someone asks in a chat.
- **Routines**: everything [routines](/assistant/schedule-a-routine) write.
- **Internal brains**: shown if you have a [public docs brain](/public-docs). Off means the skill applies only in your public docs.

Changes take effect from the next session or routine run.

## Start with the humanizer

ako includes one skill, the humanizer. It asks agents to write like a person rather than a model: say the thing, be concrete, drop the filler. Select **Add the humanizer** to copy it into your org-wide brain, then change anything you disagree with.

## Personal skills are not private

Your own skills apply only in your sessions and are never used by routines. They're stored in your organisation's knowledge like everything else, so an admin can read them. Don't put anything confidential in one.

## Edit a skill

Open the skill's file from the **Skills** page and edit it in **Knowledge**. Organisation skills live in the org-wide brain's `skills/` folder; changing them needs an admin.

## How agents find skills

The assistant reads the skills that apply before it writes. Claude and other apps you [connect to ako](/connections/connect-claude) can list them too, and read each one when it applies.