> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wayak.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Skills > Procedural instructions that teach agents how to perform specific tasks A skill is a **set of procedural instructions** written in plain language that teaches an agent how to perform a specific task. Skills go beyond answering questions — they tell the agent exactly what steps to follow, what data to pull, and what output to deliver. Skills are separate from the [ontology](/concepts/ontology/index). The ontology defines *what things are* (metrics, dimensions, entities). A skill defines *how to do something* with that data — the step-by-step procedure an agent follows when a task is triggered. While a [custom agent](/concepts/agents/custom-agents) defines the persona (*who* is doing the work), skills define the tasks (*what* work gets done). Skills are portable — you write a skill once and assign it to any number of agents. Wayak organization skills interface ## What a skill looks like A skill is a markdown description with: * **A name** — what the skill is called (e.g., "Calculate work order variance") * **A trigger** — how the skill gets activated (user request, keyword, scheduled) * **Instructions** — step-by-step procedural guidance in plain language * **Output** — what the agent returns or delivers The instructions are the core of a skill. They read like a procedure manual — clear, specific, and actionable. ## Example Here is what a skill definition looks like in practice: **Name:** Calculate work order variance **Trigger:** User asks about production cost variance or work order costs **Instructions:** > 1. Identify the work order number from the user's request. > 2. Pull the **estimated cost** from the work order header (planned labor + planned materials + planned overhead). > 3. Pull the **actual cost** by summing all posted transactions against the work order (actual labor hours x rate, actual material issues, applied overhead). > 4. Calculate the variance: actual cost minus estimated cost. > 5. Break the variance into three categories: labor variance, material variance, and overhead variance. > 6. If the total variance exceeds 10%, flag it and list the top contributing line items. > 7. Present results in a table with estimated, actual, and variance columns. **Output:** A variance summary table with a flag if the variance exceeds the threshold. Notice how the skill is purely procedural — it doesn't define what a "work order" is (that's the ontology's job) or how to talk to the user (that's the agent's persona). It only describes *how to calculate the variance*. ## More examples | Skill | What it does | | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Draft customer reply | Reads the incoming email, detects the issue type, and writes a response following the company's tone guidelines | | Generate weekly report | Queries defined metrics, formats a summary, and delivers to a channel | | Look up customer | Finds a customer across data sources and returns a consolidated profile | | Create alert | Monitors a metric and notifies the team when a threshold is crossed | ## Skills vs. custom agents A skill packages *how* to do something — the instructions for a specific task. A [custom agent](/concepts/agents/custom-agents) packages *who* is doing it — the persona, data access, and behavioral guidelines. | | Skill | Custom agent | | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | **Defines** | A procedure — *how* to perform a task | A persona — *who* the agent is | | **Content** | Step-by-step instructions in markdown | Role, goal, tone, and behavioral guidelines | | **Portability** | Assign to multiple agents | Each agent is a unique configuration | | **Relationship to ontology** | Separate — uses ontology concepts but doesn't define them | Scopes which parts of the ontology the agent can see | ## Skills vs. playbooks Skills are individual capabilities — a single action or short sequence. [Playbooks](/concepts/playbooks/what-is-a-playbook) are full automations that chain multiple skills and logic together into complex workflows. Browse concrete agent and skill examples for manufacturing, customer service, insurance, and more.