Your AI can do much more: Here's how to turn it into a personal assistant tailored just for you

A comprehensive guide to creating and using Skills in AI chatbots: how to package instructions, knowledge, and tools into a skill that performs repetitive tasks, the key rules for a successful skill, and how to transfer skills between platforms. The article also includes security warnings about malicious skills.

The article presents a comprehensive guide to using Skills in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. A skill is a package of instructions, knowledge, and tools that teaches the model to perform a specific task in a defined way, rather than starting from scratch in every conversation. The article explains how to create a skill through conversation with the chatbot, the key rules for a successful skill (defining a clear description, trigger words, avoiding unnecessary instructions, adding examples), and how to transfer skills between platforms. It also warns about security risks: a malicious skill may include code that modifies or deletes files, so it is recommended to check the instruction file before installation. The article is based on an interview with Alex Khoroshin, a software engineer and founder of the Skills IL library.