Author a Personal Skill
A reusable instruction package only you can run
You'll be able to
- Create a Personal Skill scoped to just yourself
- Write a description that tells Glean when the Skill should fire
Read first
Day 1 Lab
- Pick one task you ask Glean to do the same way every week.
- In Assistant, create a new Skill and set its scope to Personal (creator-only).
- Write the instructions: what the Skill does, step by step.
- Write the description — the "when to use" line that tells Glean which requests this Skill is for.
- Run a request that matches the description and confirm your Skill handles it.
Working Example: A Personal Skill's Shape
A Skill packages instructions Glean Assistant can reuse. A Personal Skill is scoped to its creator — only you can invoke it. Verified against assistant_skills.
Skill: "Weekly status digest" (scope: Personal — only @you)
Description (when to use):
"When the user asks for a weekly status update or standup summary."
Instructions:
1. Pull my open Jira issues and recent PRs.
2. Group them by project.
3. Write 3 bullets: shipped, in progress, blocked.The description is not decoration — it is what Glean reads to decide whether a given request should trigger this Skill. A vague "when to use" line fires on the wrong prompts; a specific one fires on exactly the requests you meant.
Check for understanding
What does the 'when to use' part of a Skill description control?
Check yourself
1. What is a Glean Assistant Skill?
2. Who can invoke a Personal Skill?
3. When Glean auto-selects a Skill, what does it primarily match against?
4. Which gives you deterministic control over which Skill runs?
5. A Skill keeps firing on the wrong requests. What is the most likely fix?
In 10 seconds
“A Skill is a reusable instruction package for Glean Assistant. Author a Personal one — scoped to just you — and the description tells Glean exactly when it should fire.”
Skill Anatomy