You can find and manage all your skills by clicking your avatar in the upper right, then going to Customize > Skills.
The skills list shows each skill's Name, Description, Creator, Created At date, and Auto-activate status at a glance.
Skills are available on the Professional and Ultimate subscription plans.
Before You Start
Skills require Productive AI to be enabled for your organization. Admins can turn this on in Settings > Productive AI.
Creating a Skill
Click your avatar in the upper right and go to Customize > Skills.
Open the + Skill dropdown and choose From template or From scratch to browse the built-in skill library.
Fill in the fields in the flyout panel:
Name: a clear, recognizable label
Description: a short summary of what the skill does. The AI Assistant and agents use the name and description together to decide whether to apply a skill automatically, so make sure to write it clearly and specifically, not just as a label.
Instructions: what the AI should do when this skill is active; be specific about tone, scope, format, and any rules it should follow
Auto-activate (on by default): when enabled, the AI Assistant or agents will consider this skill automatically, without you selecting it each time. Turn this off if you want to apply the skill manually.
Click Create Skill and it will appear in the list on the left.
📌 Not sure what to write in the instructions? Try building the skill from the AI Assistant instead: work through the task first, then save it as a skill once you're happy with the result.
Using a Template
Productive includes a library of ready-made skill templates across categories like Project Management, Resourcing, Budgeting & Finance, Time Tracking, and Engineering & Product.
To use one:
Click New Skill and choose From template.
Browse or search the library and click on a template to preview it.
Click on the template to open it in the flyout.
Edit the name, description, and instructions to fit your needs.
Click Create Skill.
Auto-Activate
When Auto-activate is enabled on a skill, the AI Assistant or agents will consider applying it automatically, even if you haven't explicitly selected it.
This is useful for skills that should always be in the background, like a house style guide or a budget review checklist you want applied whenever you're working with financials.
📌 Auto-activate is turned on by default for every new skill. If you want to control when a skill is applied, turn it off when creating or editing the skill.
Testing a Skill
Before sharing a skill, use Try it out to check that the instructions behave as expected. You can access it in two ways:
From the skill flyout, after creating or editing
From the skills list, via the three-dot menu next to any skill
Try it out opens the AI Assistant with the skill already loaded so you can send a test message straight away.
Building a Skill From the AI Assistant
You can create a skill directly from an AI Assistant conversation, and this is often the easiest and most reliable way to do it.
Work through a task until you get an output you're happy with, then say something like: "Let's create a skill for this."
The Assistant will use the conversation as the basis for the skill instructions, saving you from writing them from scratch.
This works especially well for multi-step workflows where the right instructions only become clear once you've seen the output.
Sharing a Skill
Skills are private by default. Sharing a skill is useful when:
you've built something that works well and want your team to benefit from it without rewriting it
you want an agent to follow specific instructions every time it runs
you're standardizing how your team handles a recurring workflow, like client updates or budget reviews
you want a colleague to be able to run a complex process without needing to know how to write the instructions themselves
To share a skill:
Open the skill by clicking on it.
Click the share icon in the top-right of the flyout.
Add the people, agents, teams, or dynamic groups you want to share with.
Set their access level:
Can view: they can see and use the skill
Full access: they can also edit, share, and delete it
Click Add to save.
📌 As the creator of a skill, you always retain full access: this cannot be revoked, even if others have full access.
📌 The person who gets access to a newly shared skill will receive a notification (in-app, email).
You can also add a skill to an agent directly from the agent's settings.
👉 Find out more in Setting Up and Managing Agents.
Editing a Skill
Go to Customize > Skills and click on the skill.
Make your changes in the flyout panel.
Click Update Skill.
📌 Skill instructions are not versioned. Once you save, the previous version is not recoverable.
Deleting a Skill
Open the skill by clicking on it.
Open the three-dot menu in the upper right and select Delete.
Click Yes, delete it to confirm.
📌 Deleting a skill removes it permanently. Any agents it was shared with will lose access to it.
What's Next
Skills are most powerful when they're part of your team's daily workflow, not just saved and forgotten.
👉 Working With Skills: practical examples, tips for writing better instructions, and how to build a skill library for your team.