Skill Anatomy

Instructions, templates, examples, and scripts

You'll be able to

Identify the parts of a Skill: instructions, templates, examples, scripts
Sketch a SKILL.md-style outline for a task you do often

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Glean Assistant Skills (User Guide) · 10 min

Day 2 Lab

Open a Skill you authored on Day 1 (or start a fresh one).
Separate your instructions from your templates: the steps vs. the fixed output shape.
Add one worked example — a sample input and the output you'd want for it.
Note where a script could help (where supported) for any deterministic step.
Compare a run with and without the example; see if the example steadies the output.

Working Example: A SKILL.md-Style Outline

A Skill is made of parts, each doing a distinct job: instructions tell Glean what to do, templates fix the output shape, examples show a good result, and scripts (where supported) handle deterministic steps. Verified against assistant_skills.

# SKILL: Release Notes Drafter
## Description (when to use)
  When the user asks to draft release notes from merged PRs.

## Instructions
  1. Collect merged PRs since the last tag.
  2. Group by label: feature, fix, chore.
  3. Write one user-facing line per item.

## Template (output shape)
  ## <version> — <date>
  ### Features
  - ...
  ### Fixes
  - ...

## Example
  Input:  PRs #482 (feature), #485 (fix)
  Output: "### Features\n- Atlas dashboard ... ### Fixes\n- Fixed export ..."

## Scripts (where supported)
  fetch_merged_prs.py   # deterministic: returns PRs since last tag

Instructions tell Glean *what* to do; the example shows it *what good looks like*. The two together route and behave more reliably than prose instructions alone.

Check for understanding

What does an 'example' add to a Skill that instructions alone don't?

Check yourself

Pick an answer — you'll see if it's right and why.

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?

Pass threshold 80% · week 5 quiz

In 10 seconds

“A Skill isn't just a prompt. It has parts — instructions, templates, examples, and where supported, scripts. Knowing the anatomy lets you build ones that behave the same every time.”

Next · Week 5 Day 3
Skill Routing

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