Offer agent skills

Tools give an AI agent the ability to call your API. Skills give it the know-how to use those tools well. A skill is a short markdown playbook — a SKILL.md document — that teaches an agent how to accomplish a multi-step task with your server's tools, for example:

To create an order: first call list_customers to find the customer, then call create_order with their id, then confirm with get_order.

This guide explains how to author skills and how AI clients consume them.

How clients consume a skill

When a skill is enabled, the runtime offers it to connected MCP clients in two ways, so it works regardless of how advanced the client is:

• As a resource — the playbook is published at skill://<slug>/SKILL.md. Clients that support MCP resources list available skills and read the playbook on demand (progressive disclosure).

• As a wrapper tool — a read-only tool named skill_<slug> is also registered. Calling it returns the same playbook. This is the compatibility path for clients that don't yet surface resources or a native skills extension.

Enabled skills are also summarized in the server's instructions, so the model learns they exist on connect.

Managing skills from an agent

Skills can be managed two ways: from the dashboard (below) or by an AI agent connected to the FlowCP MCP server. The agent surface exposes skills as tools — list_skills, create_skill, update_skill, and delete_skill — so an agent can author and toggle skills for a server without leaving the chat. Like the dashboard, new skills start disabled.

Opening the skills list

From your app's dashboard, click the Skills tab. The page lists every skill on the selected server, each with an on/off switch. If your app has multiple environments (branches), use the branch buttons to switch between them.

Creating a skill

1. Click New skill.

2. Fill in the fields:

   • Name — a snake_case identifier, e.g. create_order. The wrapper tool is derived from it as skill_create_order.

   • Description — a one-line summary shown to the agent so it can decide when the skill is relevant.

   • SKILL.md body — the markdown playbook itself. Reference your tools by their exact names and spell out the steps in order.

3. Click Create skill.

New skills are created disabled, following the platform's default-deny model — see Default-deny model.

Generating skills with AI

If you're not sure where to start, let AI draft skills for you. Click AI Suggestions on the Skills page. FlowCP reads the selected server's tools and asks an LLM to propose three skills that chain those tools into real workflows.

Each suggestion shows its name, a one-line description, and a preview of the playbook. Click Use this on the one you want — it opens the skill editor pre-filled so you can review and adjust the wording before saving. Nothing is created until you click Create skill, and (like every skill) it starts disabled.

AI Suggestions require an AI provider to be configured for the platform. If it isn't, the button reports that suggestions aren't available — you can still author skills manually.

Enabling a skill

Toggle the switch on a skill's row to On to offer it to AI clients. Changes take effect immediately — no re-publish required. Disabled skills are never exposed as a resource or a tool.

Editing and deleting

• Click the pencil icon to edit a skill's name, description, or body. Renaming re-derives the slug and the wrapper tool name.

• Click the trash icon to delete a skill. This cannot be undone.

Writing effective skills

• Name the tools explicitly. Use the exact tool names from the Tools page so the agent can map steps to calls.

• Be procedural. List steps in order, including how to handle the common failure case.

• Keep it focused. One skill per task or flow reads better than a single catch-all document.

• Enable the tools it references. A skill is only useful if the tools it mentions are themselves enabled.