How Skills Work

Skills are modular, reusable capabilities that teach your agent how to perform specific tasks. Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with instructions and metadata, plus optional scripts. When the AI adds a skill, it creates this directory in your agent's .shogo/skills/ directory and the agent loads it on startup.

What a skill is

A skill's SKILL.md has two parts:

Frontmatter (YAML) — metadata: name, description, what tools it needs
Body (Markdown) — instructions that tell the agent how to execute the skill

---
name: daily-digest
version: 1.0.0
description: Compile and send a daily morning briefing to Slack
trigger: "daily digest|morning briefing|send briefing"
tools: [web, memory_read, send_message]
---

# Daily Digest

When triggered, compile a morning briefing and send it to the configured Slack channel.

## Steps
1. Read MEMORY.md to get tracked topics and preferences
2. Use `web` to search for news on each tracked topic (last 24 hours)
3. Check GitHub for new PRs and issues on configured repos
4. Format a digest with top stories, GitHub activity, and any pending tasks
5. Send to Slack using `send_message`

## Format
- Lead with a one-line summary: "Good morning — 3 stories, 2 open PRs, 1 alert"
- Group by category: News, GitHub, Reminders
- Keep each item to 1-2 lines with a link
- End with "Nothing urgent" if no alerts

Skill fields

Field	Required	Description
`name`	Yes	Unique identifier for the skill
`description`	Yes	One-line description of what the skill does
`trigger`	No	Pipe-separated keywords that activate the skill
`version`	No	Version number (semver)
`tools`	No	Tools the skill needs access to
`setup`	No	Command to run before first invocation (e.g. `pip install -r requirements.txt`)
`runtime`	No	Default runtime for scripts (`python3`, `node`, `bash`)

Available tools in skills

Tool	What it does
`web`	Search the web or fetch a URL
`exec`	Run shell commands
`read_file`	Read a workspace file
`write_file`	Write a workspace file
`memory_read`	Read from MEMORY.md or daily logs
`memory_write`	Write to MEMORY.md or daily logs
`send_message`	Send a message via a connected channel
`browser`	Control a headless browser
`heartbeat_configure`	Configure heartbeat schedule and quiet hours
`heartbeat_status`	Check heartbeat configuration and checklist

The skills directory

Skills live in your agent's workspace .shogo/skills/ directory:

workspace/
└── .shogo/
    └── skills/
        ├── daily-digest/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── ticket-triage/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── lead-scorer/
        │   ├── SKILL.md
        │   └── scripts/
        │       └── score.py
        └── health-check/
            └── SKILL.md

Skills can optionally include a scripts/ subdirectory with custom executable code. These scripts can be run via the skill tool's run_script action.

You can view all installed skills in the Capabilities > Skills tab of your agent.

How skills are created

Skills are created through chat — you don't write them by hand. The AI generates the skill file based on your description and writes it into .shogo/skills/.

Examples:

"Add a skill that monitors our API health and alerts on failures."

"Create a skill for triaging support tickets by severity."

"Build a skill that researches a topic across multiple sources and returns a summary."

After you describe what you want, the AI:

Determines the right skill name, triggers, and tools
Writes the instruction body
Creates the file in .shogo/skills/
Confirms what was created

Modifying skills

You can edit a skill by describing the change through chat:

"Update the daily-digest skill to also include Stripe revenue data."

"Change the ticket-triage skill so P0 tickets trigger an immediate Slack alert instead of waiting for the daily digest."

"The health-check skill is too noisy — make it only alert if a check fails 3 times in a row."

Templates come with pre-built skills

Each agent template includes skills pre-configured for its purpose:

Template	Skills included
Research Assistant	`research-deep`, `topic-tracker`
GitHub Ops	`github-ops`, `pr-review`
Support Desk	`ticket-triage`, `escalation-alert`
Meeting Prep	`meeting-prep-v2`, `meeting-notes-v2`
Revenue Tracker	`revenue-snapshot`, `invoice-manage`
Project Board	`sprint-board`, `standup-collect`
Incident Commander	`health-check`, `incident-triage`
Personal Assistant	`habit-track`, `reminder-manage`

You can view and customize any of these through chat after selecting a template.

Skills vs heartbeat checklist

Skills and the heartbeat checklist serve different purposes:

	Skills	Heartbeat checklist
What it is	A reusable capability file	A scheduled task list
How it's triggered	Via chat, heartbeat, or keyword	Automatically on every tick
Scope	Detailed instructions for one capability	High-level list of periodic checks
Example	"How to triage a ticket end-to-end"	"Check for new tickets every 30 min"

The heartbeat checklist delegates work to skills. A good heartbeat item reads: "On each tick, run the ticket-triage skill on any new Zendesk tickets."

Capabilities panel — where you browse installed skills
Heartbeat — how skills are triggered on a schedule
Workspace Files — the .shogo/skills/ directory in context

What a skill is​

Skill fields​

Available tools in skills​

The skills directory​

How skills are created​

Modifying skills​

Templates come with pre-built skills​

Skills vs heartbeat checklist​

Related​