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Skills tell Metal’s AI how to approach a recurring task — which sources to check, what sequence to follow, what format to produce, and what firm-specific judgment to apply. They are reusable playbooks for chat and agents, not one-off messages.

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Skills vs. prompts vs. workflows

  • Prompts are reusable text you insert into chat.
  • Skills are procedural guidance packages. A skill includes instructions and can include companion files and assets so the agent follows a consistent process.
  • Workflows are structured automations. Each execution is a run, with a canvas, steps, and output. See Using workflows.
Use a skill when you want Metal to follow a repeatable method in chat. Use a workflow when you want a defined, multi-step process with a run you can review.

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Where to find skills

Open Settings from your profile menu, or press ⌘ ,.
  • Settings → Skills (under Account) lists every skill available to you: yours, firm-wide, shared with you, and Metal’s built-in system skills.
  • Settings → Firm Skills (under Firm Guidance) is the admin view of skills shared across the organization. Admins can create firm-wide skills here.
System skills are authored by Metal and are read-only. You can use them in chat; you cannot export or edit them.

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Create a skill

1

Open Skills

Go to Settings → Skills, or to Settings → Firm Skills if you are an admin creating a firm-wide skill.
2

Click Create Skill

Give the skill a name and a short description so people (and Metal) can find it.
3

Write the instructions

Tell Metal the process to follow: sources, sequence, output format, and any firm-specific rules.
4

Choose who can use it

Under General access, set visibility:
  • Private — only you
  • Shared — specific people or teams
  • Firmwide — official organization skill (admins only)
Creating from Firm Skills defaults the new skill to firm-wide.

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Use a skill in chat

Open Chat (press ⌘ J). From the composer, open Actions or type / to pick a skill from the slash menu. You can also ask in plain language. When a user skill is a strong match for your request, chat can route to it without you selecting it first.

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Import and export

You can move a working skill as a portable file. This is the path for taking a skill from one Metal environment to another, or bringing in a skill exported from Claude.

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Export

On Settings → Skills, click the download icon on a skill you own or can edit. Metal saves a .skill file. A .skill file is a zip archive; Claude uses the same format. The bundle includes:
  • SKILL.md — the skill’s name, description, and instructions
  • Companion files packaged with the skill
  • Binary assets under assets/
Built-in system skills cannot be exported.

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Import

On Settings → Skills (or Firm Skills, for admins), click Import and choose a .skill or .zip file. Bundles must be 10 MiB or smaller. The archive must contain a SKILL.md file. Companion files in the zip are imported with the skill. Files under assets/ are imported as binary attachments. If a skill with the same name already exists, Metal asks you to confirm before overwriting. Overwriting replaces the content and files; owners and visibility stay the same. Importing from Firm Skills creates a firm-wide skill. Importing from Skills creates a personal skill.
Import accepts .skill and .zip bundles, not a standalone .md file. To bring in a plain SKILL.md, create a skill and paste the instructions into the editor. A .skill file is a renamed zip — if you already have a zip that contains SKILL.md, you can import it as-is.

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Size limits

Metal checks a skill’s size every time you create, edit, or import it. The same limits apply when you accept a recommended change or when the agent saves a skill for you in chat. Binary asset contents under assets/ are stored outside the skill document, so they don’t count toward the content or companion file limits. Asset metadata is stored with the skill, so it counts toward the 2 MiB whole-skill limit. The whole-skill limit is the one you’re most likely to hit. Content and companion files that are each at their full 1 MiB limit can still exceed 2 MiB together once Metal stores them. If a save or import goes over a limit, Metal rejects it and keeps the existing skill unchanged. When you save from the editor, the error states the current size and the limit the skill went over:
  • Content: the size of the skill content.
  • Companion files: the combined size, plus the name and size of the largest file.
  • Whole skill: the total size, broken down into content and companion files.
Import errors for oversized bundles, SKILL.md entries, or companion file sets report the limit that was exceeded but not the current size. To fix it, shorten the instructions or move reference material out of companion files, then save or import again. Skills created before these limits existed stay editable. Metal applies the content and companion file limits only to the parts you change. You can still update the name, description, or other settings of a skill whose content or companion files are over 1 MiB. Once you edit its content or companion files, the new version must fit within those limits. The 2 MiB whole-skill limit applies to every save.

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Sharing and admin control

  • Anyone can create private skills and share them with specific people or teams.
  • Only admins can make a skill Firmwide.
  • Admins can edit a skill they can see, including promoting it to firm-wide. Deleting a skill stays with the owner.
Skills you create in Metal are available in chat for your organization. They are not the same as connecting Metal to an external assistant with the Metal MCP server.