Capability 06
A saved method it follows.
Exact name Packaged procedure
Step 05 · Build & shareWhat it is.
Written instructions for a job you do again and again, saved so the tool can follow them whenever that job comes up. Colleagues can use the same method instead of each writing their own.
What your tool calls it.
- Skills: Reusable written instructions, optionally with steps and scripts, that ChatGPT applies to a task. You can create, upload, share or install them.
- skills: Reusable packages of know-how that Claude can use. They can be uploaded, shared, bundled into plugins and used in the Office add-ins. Enterprise plans can scan third-party skills for malicious content.
- skills: Saved instructions, optionally with files, that you call by typing "/" in any chat. Gemini can also apply them on its own when relevant, and several can be combined.
- skills: Built-in ready-made procedures, from Microsoft and Anthropic's Claude, that Cowork uses for jobs such as calendar management and daily briefings.
- Skills: Reusable instructions that Computer switches on when a request matches. You can install them, create them through a conversation, or upload them.
- Skills: Reusable instructions on grok.com that teach Grok how to do something once, so it applies them in later conversations.
Also at Grok: skills and routines (Grok Bot)preview
- skills (Muse): Built-in capabilities made by Meta, such as research, documents, podcasts, images, dashboards and web browsing. Muse picks the ones a task needs, and nothing needs to be installed. No page read says users can write their own.
- Skills: Written instruction files (SKILL.md plus optional supporting files) that Work loads automatically when a task matches the description. They can be kept personal or shared with a workspace.
All eight tools now use the same word: skills. It's the steadiest name on this map.
Why it matters.
Our view: this is how a good way of doing something stops depending on one person. And several vendors are moving their custom assistants into skills: Google's Gems, Mistral's Agents. Perplexity's Workflows were replaced by skills on September 23, 2026.
Words that trip people up.
- Same word, different reach. In ChatGPT, skills are for Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu accounts. At Microsoft, skills sit inside Copilot Cowork, which needs the paid licence. At Meta, Muse's skills are built by Meta only.
- Plugins often bundle skills with connectors. More on "plugin" →
Next to it.
One step up.
This is the top step.
Every step is a fine place to stop if it does the job.
What this step asks of you.
Someone owns it once others depend on it, keeps it current, and retires it when it's no longer right. Decide who can use it and what data it can reach before you share it. A person reviews anything it makes before it reaches a customer.
Where we teach it.
Encode a method so someone else runs it: you take a task you personally do, encode it, and watch a colleague run it without you. It's in the longer class, or a private session for your team.
Register interest → Or: a session built around your own team's work →