Agent Builder Skills Screen Guide

Skills are reusable instructions that teach agents when and how to use tools — a playbook for a job (draft a newsletter, handle a WooCommerce order, reply to support) rather than the tool itself. Manage tools on Tools; teach the workflow here.

Basic mode is a chat with the bundled Skills Assistant. The skill table, Create Skill, Browse Community, and file import/export live in Advanced mode on this same page.

Overview

Open Agent Builder → Skills in wp-admin. At the top you’ll see:

The Skills heading
Instructions that teach agents when and how to use tools.
A Basic / Advanced toggle (this page only). The ? next to it: Only changes this screen. Other screens and your site-wide default (Settings → Interface) are unaffected.

Basic embeds Skills Assistant (no agent picker). Advanced is the installed-skills table. Create Skill, Edit, and Browse Community are extra views of this same page.

Skills sections

Basic mode (Skills Assistant)

A chat with the bundled Skills Assistant agent. It can draft, edit, and manage skills, and find or import skills other people have published — conversationally. Its tools include managing a skill, browsing community skills, and listing available agents.

You get:

The agent’s icon and name (Skills Assistant)
Its welcome message
Try asking — four starter prompts. Clicking one sends it immediately:
- Teach an agent how to draft a weekly newsletter from recent posts.
- Find a skill for managing WooCommerce orders.
- What skills does my Content Writer agent have?
- Help me write a skill for replying to support comments.
Composer placeholder Ask Skills Assistant… — Enter sends; Shift+Enter inserts a newline; Send
While it works: Skills Assistant is thinking…
The same in-thread Proposed Change / Needs Your Approval cards as Agent Chat (Allow Once, Allow this Session, Always Allow, Deny — or Approve / Reject for high-risk)

This embed has no agent dropdown, no chat history panel, no New Chat control, and no paperclip / microphone / read-aloud buttons (those live on Agent Chat when the matching Settings → Agents features are on).

If Skills Assistant isn’t available: This assistant is still activating. with Check the Agents page. Open Agents and confirm Skills Assistant is active, then return.

Advanced mode (installed skills table)

The panel title is Skills. Two buttons above the table:

Create Skill (primary) — opens the template gallery
Browse Community — opens the community hub

A search box filters by skill name, description, or assigned agent.

Table

Column	What it shows
Skill	A status light (Active / Disabled), the name, and the description
Agent	Assigned agent names, or All agents if none are checked
Source	Core, Agentic, ClawHub, WordPress.org, Anthropic, or Local
Version	Version string, or —
Actions	Edit · Export · Delete

The light is a status indicator, not a switch — enable or disable a skill on its Edit form.

Empty list: No skills installed yet. Import a recommended skill, create your own, or browse the community above. (The actions above the table are Create Skill and Browse Community.)
No search matches: No skills match your search. Try a different keyword or clear the search.

Delete confirms Delete this skill? This cannot be undone. Failure: Delete failed.

Export downloads that skill’s SKILL.md.

Edit opens the Edit Skill form.

Create Skill

Opens from Create Skill. Heading Create Skill, with ← Back to Skills.

Start from a template close to what you need, or from a blank skill. Five cards:

Card	Category	Description
Blank skill	General	Start from an empty SKILL.md skeleton.
WordPress content workflow	WordPress	For a skill that creates, edits, or reviews posts and pages.
WooCommerce workflow	WooCommerce	For a skill touching products, orders, or store data.
Developer / technical workflow	Developer	For a skill wrapping technical or maintenance tools.
Communication / support workflow	Communication	For a skill handling messaging, notifications, or support handoffs.

Or import an existing SKILL.md

Any spec-compliant skill file — from ClawHub, Android Skills, Claude Skills, or elsewhere — can be dropped in directly. Choose a .md file and Import File. A bad file: Could not import that file — make sure it is a valid SKILL.md (YAML frontmatter followed by Markdown).

Picking a template opens the same form as Edit, titled Create Skill, with that skeleton in SKILL.md Content.

Edit Skill / the create form

Heading Edit Skill or Create Skill, with ← Back to Skills.

If it’s a bundled core skill:

Unedited: This is a bundled skill. Editing it will fork a local copy — your changes will be preserved across plugin updates.
Already edited: This bundled skill has local edits. Plugin updates will not overwrite your changes. plus Reset to shipped version (confirms Discard your edits and restore the shipped version of this skill?). Success: Skill reset to the shipped version.

A Spec check warning (not blocking) may list portable-spec problems, including allowed-tools references unknown tool(s): …

Fields:

Name (required) — empty save: Skill name is required.
Description — brief summary of what this skill teaches the agent to do
SKILL.md Content — markdown injected into the agent’s system prompt; teaches when and how to use specific tools
Assign to Agents — one checkbox per active agent. Leave every box unchecked to make the skill available to all agents, or check one or more to limit it
Author (optional) and Version (default 1.0.0)
Enable — Active — inject this skill into agent system prompts (new skills default on)

Preview what this skill sends to the agent (Advanced, disclosure):

Always in context (progressive-disclosure “metadata” tier — every enabled skill’s index line)
Loaded only when the agent calls load_skill for this skill (the full body), with line count and an estimated token count. Over ~500 lines: Over the spec’s ~500-line guidance — consider moving reference material out.

If the skill was imported from ClawHub: This skill was imported from ClawHub. Local edits will be preserved unless you re-import.

Create Skill / Update Skill saves. Success: Skill created. / Skill updated. Then you return to the list.

Browse Community Skills

Opens from Browse Community. Heading Browse Community Skills, with ← Back to Skills.

Source tabs:

WordPress.org — official WordPress/agent-skills catalog (default)
Anthropic — anthropics/skills
OpenClaw / ClawHub — large open-publish registry with a Search skills… box and Search

The list loads with Loading…. Each row: Name, Description, Action → Import. Confirm Import this skill? then Importing…. Success: Skill “{name}” imported. Failures: Failed to import skill. / Invalid skill data. / No skills found in this repository. / No skills found. Try a different search term.

Imported skills then appear on the Advanced table.

Create skills from your work

Save as skill. In chat, open the menu on any agent reply and choose Save as skill. Agent Builder turns that conversation into a draft skill. Only your own conversations can be used.
Teach a task. Click Teach a task in chat or on the Skills screen, then ask the agent to do the job step by step. A banner shows while recording. Click Stop and Agent Builder drafts a skill from the tools the agent used. If drafting fails, your recording is kept so you can try again.
Create from text. Describe the skill in your own words on the Skills screen.

New skills start as drafts under Drafts, so you can review and edit them before any agent uses them. By default a skill is shared with every agent. To keep new skills with the agent that created them, change the default on the Skills screen.

Run a skill from chat. Type / in the chat box to see your skills, then pick one or type /skill-name followed by any details. With Agent Builder Pro, Pro’s own commands appear first.

Common tasks

Asking Skills Assistant to write a skill (Basic)

Open Skills in Basic mode
Click a Try asking prompt, or type in Ask Skills Assistant… and Send
If it proposes a change, review Proposed Change and Allow Once (or session / always / deny)

To inspect or tweak the file it created, switch this screen to Advanced and Edit that row.

Creating a skill from a template (Advanced)

Open Skills in Advanced
Click Create Skill
Pick a template (or Blank skill)
Fill Name, Description, and SKILL.md Content
Optionally Assign to Agents
Leave Enable checked to inject it
Click Create Skill

Importing a community skill

Open Skills in Advanced
Click Browse Community
Stay on WordPress.org, or switch to Anthropic / OpenClaw / ClawHub
Click Import on a row and confirm

Or on Create Skill, use Import File to drop in a local SKILL.md.

Editing or disabling a skill

Open Skills in Advanced
Click Edit
Change the markdown, assignments, or clear Enable to stop injecting it
Update Skill

The list light is not a toggle — disable from this form.

Exporting a skill

Open Skills in Advanced
Click Export on that row
Save the SKILL.md

Deleting a skill

Open Skills in Advanced
Click Delete
Confirm Delete this skill? This cannot be undone.

FAQ

Where is the list of skills?

In Advanced mode. Click Advanced at the top right of this page (not the site-wide switch in the header). Basic mode is Skills Assistant chat only.

What’s the difference between a skill and a tool?

A tool is an action an agent may call (see Tools). A skill is markdown that teaches when and how to use tools for a job. Enabling a skill injects its index line into prompts; the full body loads when the agent calls load_skill.

Skills Assistant isn’t showing.

The embed shows This assistant is still activating. with Check the Agents page. Open Agents and confirm Skills Assistant is active, then return.

Can I change the model from this chat?

No. This embed has no Playground. Provider and model come from Settings, same as other chats. For the full Chat chrome (history, voice, images), open Agent Chat and pick Skills Assistant there.

Why is Source “Core”?

Bundled skills that ship with the plugin. Editing one forks a local copy so plugin updates won’t overwrite you. Reset to shipped version on the Edit screen discards those edits.

What’s the difference between this page’s Basic / Advanced and the site-wide switch?

This page’s toggle changes only Skills (Assistant chat vs the table) and is remembered per user. The site-wide switch in the admin header is the default for every Agent Builder screen.

Who can open this page?

Administrators, and anyone granted permission to manage tools. Create, edit, import, and delete use the same permission.