Simple Agent Designer Documentation
Index

Skills

Skills are reusable knowledge entries that teach your AI agents how to perform specific tasks. Think of a skill as a reference document that an agent can look up when it needs step-by-step instructions for a particular procedure.

What Are Skills?

A skill is a structured piece of knowledge consisting of:

Field Description
Code A unique identifier for the skill (up to 20 characters)
Name A descriptive name for the skill (up to 100 characters)
Summary A short description used by agents to find the right skill (up to 2048 characters)
Instructions The full, detailed instructions for performing the task (stored as a large text field)

When an agent has tools enabled, it can use the get_skill tool to retrieve a skill's instructions by code. The agent reads the summary to determine which skill is relevant, then retrieves the full instructions to follow.

Accessing Skills

Open the Skills list from:

  • The Role Center / menu → Skills action
  • The Ad Hoc Agent page action bar → Agent Designer → Skills

The Skills list is not surfaced through Tell Me search — reach it from one of the actions above.

Creating a Skill Manually

  1. Open the Skills list
  2. Choose New to create a new skill entry
  3. Fill in the Code — a short, descriptive identifier (e.g., BANK-RECON, INV-APPROVE)
  4. Fill in the Name — a readable title (e.g., "Bank Reconciliation Procedure")
  5. Write a Summary — this is what agents use to determine if the skill is relevant, so make it descriptive and specific
  6. Choose Edit Instructions from the action bar
  7. In the instruction editor, write the detailed step-by-step procedure
  8. Close the editor to save

Writing Good Instructions

Instructions should be written as clear, actionable steps that an AI agent can follow. Include:

  • The goal of the procedure
  • Step-by-step actions in order
  • What data to look for and where
  • What decisions to make and when
  • Expected outcomes or validation checks

Example:

Goal: Process a vendor invoice for payment

Steps:
1. Look up the vendor by name or number in the Vendor table
2. Verify the vendor's payment terms and bank account are on file
3. Check if a purchase order exists for this invoice
4. If a PO exists, match the invoice lines to the PO lines
5. If amounts match within 5% tolerance, approve for payment
6. Create a purchase invoice document with the matched lines
7. If amounts do not match, flag for manual review and report the discrepancy

Importing a Skill from a Web Article

You can automatically create a skill from an online article, such as a Microsoft Learn page or any web-based procedure guide.

Prerequisite: A default (General) agent must be configured first — the import uses it to extract the knowledge. If no default agent is set, the import fails with "No default AI agent is configured." See Creating Agents for how to mark an agent as the General Agent.

  1. Open the Skills list
  2. Choose Import from Web Article from the action bar
  3. In the dialog, enter the Article URL (e.g., a Microsoft Learn article URL)
  4. Click OK

The system will:

  1. Download the web article
  2. Convert the HTML content to readable text
  3. Send the content to an AI agent that extracts the key knowledge
  4. Automatically generate a skill code, name, and summary
  5. Save the extracted instructions as a new skill

The newly created skill appears in the list. You can then review and edit the instructions if needed.

Tips for Web Import

  • Use articles that contain clear, procedural content (how-to guides work best)
  • Microsoft Learn articles about Business Central features are an excellent source
  • Review the imported instructions — AI extraction is good but may benefit from minor adjustments
  • The system avoids creating duplicate codes, so importing the same article twice generates a different code

How Agents Use Skills

When an agent with tools enabled encounters a task that requires specific knowledge, it can:

  1. Call the get_skill tool with a skill code
  2. Receive the full instructions for that skill
  3. Follow the instructions to complete the task

For this to work effectively:

  • The agent's own instructions should mention that skills are available
  • Skill summaries should be descriptive enough for the agent to find the right one
  • The skills should be written from the perspective of guiding an AI agent, not a human user

Example Flow

User: Process the attached invoice from Contoso Ltd

Agent: [Calls get_skill with code "INV-PROCESS"]
       [Reads the skill instructions for invoice processing]
       [Follows the steps: looks up vendor, matches PO, creates document]

       I've processed the invoice from Contoso Ltd:
       - Matched to PO 1045
       - Created Purchase Invoice PI-2026-0412
       - All line amounts matched within tolerance

Managing Skills

Editing a Skill

  1. Select the skill in the list
  2. Click on the row to open the Skill Card
  3. Modify the Code, Name, or Summary fields directly
  4. Choose Edit Instructions to update the detailed instructions

Deleting a Skill

Select the skill in the list and delete it. Agents that reference the deleted skill code will receive an error when trying to retrieve it.

Tips and Best Practices

  • Start with a few key skills for your most common procedures and expand over time
  • Write summaries that clearly describe what the skill covers — agents use summaries to decide relevance
  • Keep instructions specific and actionable rather than general or theoretical
  • Import skills from Microsoft Learn to quickly build knowledge about standard Business Central features
  • Test skills by asking your agent to perform the task and verify it follows the instructions correctly
  • Use consistent naming conventions for skill codes (e.g., prefix by department or area)