# Use skills

Last validated Nov 10, 2026

Use the **Skills** page in Aperture Chat to collect the skills you want to work with. **Your skills** holds skills you add from your organization's skills library, skills you create or import, and built-in skills from Aperture. The skills in **Your skills** are available in Chat. Your personal skills and the library skills you add are also available in agents connected to Aperture over MCP.

To manage your organization's skills library as an administrator, refer to [Manage skills][docs-manage-skills].

## Prerequisites

To use skills, you need the following prerequisites:

* A user account that can sign in to [Aperture Chat][docs-chat].
* To add skills your organization shares: a grant from your Aperture administrator that makes those skills visible to you.
* To create, upload, import, edit, copy, or turn skills on or off: skill authoring, which is on unless your administrator turns it off.
* To use skills in an agent: an agent connected to the Aperture MCP endpoint. Refer to [Use skills in an agent][ar-use-skills-in-an-agent].

## Add skills your organization shares

Your Aperture administrator decides which skills you can discover. You choose which of them to add.

1. Open Aperture Chat and select **Skills** in the sidebar.
2. Select the **Discover** tab. Skills are grouped by source. Built-in skills appear under **Aperture**.
3. Select a skill to inspect its files, or select **Add** to add it to **Your skills**.

A **New** or **Updated** tag marks skills that changed in the last day. When your administrator updates a skill you added, you get the new version with your next message.

## Use a skill in Chat

To use a skill in a message, do one of the following:

* Type `/` at the start of a message, then select the skill.
* Type `$` at the start of any word in a message, followed by at least two characters of the skill name, then select the skill.
* On the **Skills** page, open the skill and select **Use in chat** to start a new chat with it. A personal skill must be turned on.

The model can also load a skill on its own when the skill's description matches your request. The conversation shows **Using skill** while the model reads it.

Some skills, such as **Skill Creator**, need the [Chat sandbox][docs-chat-sandbox]. Turn on the sandbox to use them.

## Use skills in an agent

Agents connected to Aperture over MCP receive your personal skills and the library skills in **Your skills**. Built-in skills are available only in Chat.

1. In Aperture Chat, select **Agents** in the sidebar.
2. Follow the setup guide for your agent. For another agent, select **Other**, then copy the **MCP endpoint** and add it to your agent as an MCP server. The endpoint is `https://<aperture-hostname>/v1/mcp`.

Agents that support skills over MCP list and load your skills directly.

Connected agents can also use the Aperture skill tools to list, inspect, and manage your skills, including uploading new ones. For the tools and the access they need, refer to [Skill tools][docs-skill-tools].

## Create a skill

You can write a skill yourself or build one with the **Skill Creator** skill.

To write a skill:

1. On the **Skills** page, select **Add**, then select **Create a skill**.
2. Enter the following:
   * **Name**: A single-line name of up to 128 characters.
   * **Description**: When to use the skill. The model reads the description to decide whether to load it.
   * **Instructions**: What the model does when it uses the skill, in Markdown.
3. Select **Create skill**. The skill opens in the editor, where you can add files.

To build a skill with **Skill Creator**:

1. On the **Skills** page, select **Add**, then select **Create with Aperture**. A new chat opens with a starting message that selects **Skill Creator**. If **Create with Aperture** doesn't appear, add **Skill Creator** from **Discover** first.
2. Turn on the Chat sandbox if it's off. **Skill Creator** needs the sandbox.
3. Send the message and answer the model's questions about what the skill does and when to use it.
4. When the model produces a `.skill` file, select **Add skill** on the file card.

## Upload skills

Upload skills you wrote or brought from another agent, such as Claude or Codex.

1. On the **Skills** page, select **Add**, then select **Upload skills**.
2. Drop or choose one or more files. Each skill needs a `SKILL.md` file. You can upload a `SKILL.md` file, or a `.zip` or `.skill` archive of a skill folder, up to 30 MB.
3. Select **Upload**. With several files, the button shows the number of files.

If an archive holds several skills, choose one or select **Add all**. If you already have a skill with the same name, choose **Replace** and confirm to save the upload as a new version, or choose **Keep both** and name the copy.

## Import skills from a link

Import skills from a Git repository or a site that publishes skills.

1. On the **Skills** page, select **Add**, then select **Import from a link**.
2. Paste a link to the repository or site, then select **Find skills**. Link to a folder to import only its skills.
3. Select the skills to import, then select **Review *N* skills**.
4. Review each skill. Import a skill that includes scripts only if you trust the source.
5. Select **Import *N* skills**.

Skills you import from a public repository can stay in sync with the repository. To turn updates on or off, open the skill, select **Imported**, then use **Automatic updates**. To keep the skill as your own copy, select **Unlink from repository**.

To import from a private GitHub repository, connect GitHub in **Connectors** first. Aperture doesn't update skills from private repositories automatically. To check for an update, open the skill and select **Check for updates** next to **Imported**.

## Edit a skill

You can edit the skills you create, upload, or import. Each save creates a new version. Saving any change to a skill imported from a repository makes it your own copy, and it stops receiving updates from the repository.

1. On the **Skills** page, open the skill.
2. Select **Edit**.
3. Change the skill's files. Use **New file**, **New folder**, or **Upload file** to add supporting files, and link to them from `SKILL.md` so the model knows when to read them.
4. Select **Save version**.

To return to an earlier version, select **Version *N*** next to the skill name, choose a version, then select **Restore** and confirm. The current version stays in the history. **Version *N*** appears once a skill has more than one version.

Aperture keeps up to 20 earlier versions of a skill, for 30 days each. Older versions expire and you can't restore them.

## Copy a skill to edit it

You can't edit library skills or built-in skills. To change one, make a copy in **Your skills**.

1. On the **Skills** page, open the skill.
2. Open the **Skill actions** menu (**…**) and select **Duplicate**.
3. Enter a **Name** for the copy, then select **Duplicate**.

Your copy is a personal skill you can edit. The original stays as it is, and your copy doesn't receive its updates.

## Turn a skill on or off

Turn off a personal skill to keep it without using it in conversations or agents.

* To turn one skill on or off, use the switch next to it on the **Skills** page or on its page.
* To change several skills at once, select **Select**, choose the skills, then select **Turn on** or **Turn off**.

Built-in and library skills don't have a switch. Add them from **Discover** to use them, and remove them from **Your skills** to stop.

To keep the model from using a personal skill on its own in Chat, open the skill, open **Skill actions**, select **Slash command only**, then select **Make command**. The model then uses the skill only after you select it in a conversation.

## Remove or delete a skill

* **Library or built-in skill**: Open **Skill actions** and select **Remove from Your skills**. You can add it again from **Discover**.
* **Personal skill**: Open **Skill actions** and select **Delete**. Deleting a skill deletes its history, and you can't undo it.

To save a copy of any skill first, open **Skill actions** and select **Download**. Aperture downloads the skill as a `.zip` file.

## Next steps

* [Skills][docs-skills]: Understand how personal, library, and built-in skills work together.
* [Chat sandbox][docs-chat-sandbox]: Turn on the sandbox for skills that run code.
* [Use Aperture with your tools][docs-use-your-tools]: Connect more agents to Aperture.

## Additional information

If your organization turns off personal skills for you, you can still add skills from **Discover**. You can still open, download, or delete your existing personal skills, but you can't create, import, edit, copy, or turn skills on or off. Your personal skills stop reaching your conversations and agents.

[ar-use-skills-in-an-agent]: #use-skills-in-an-agent

[docs-chat-sandbox]: /docs/aperture/chat-sandbox

[docs-chat]: /docs/aperture/chat

[docs-manage-skills]: /docs/aperture/how-to/manage-skills

[docs-skill-tools]: /docs/aperture/connectors/system-connectors#skill-tools

[docs-skills]: /docs/aperture/skills

[docs-use-your-tools]: /docs/aperture/use-your-tools