What skills are
Your team's know-how, saved and reusable
Every data team repeats the same work: documenting tables, building a data dictionary, checking a model against naming standards, normalizing a messy schema. Today that knowledge lives in people's heads, and the instructions get retyped from scratch every time.
A Skill captures one of those tasks as a reusable instruction you write once and name, for example Document all tables or Suggest indexes. From then on, anyone on your team can run it inside Copilot chat in a single step, without retyping the instructions.
The Skills library: every skill is named, searchable, and ready to run. New users start from a clear empty state.
Why it matters
Consistency, speed, and less reliance on tribal knowledge
- Consistent output. Every table documented the same way, every model checked against the same standard, no matter who runs it.
- Faster work. Common tasks go from a paragraph of typed instructions to a single command in chat.
- Shared standards. Your team's conventions live in the tool, not in one expert's memory. New team members follow them from their first day.
- Works across your models. A Skill written once adapts to whatever you have selected, so the same Skill works on every schema without rewriting it.
How you use it
Three steps, all inside Copilot
1. Create a skill. Open the Skills library and create a new skill. Give it a name (the name becomes its slash-command slug), choose its scope, and write your instructions in plain language. You can use Markdown.
2. Save it. Add a short note on when Copilot should use it, then save. The skill is now available to everyone on your team.
Authoring a skill: plain-language instructions with a live preview, and a short note on when Copilot should use it.
3. Run it in context. Pick a Skill and it attaches to your message. Send it, and Copilot runs your saved instructions against whatever you are working on, the selected schema, table, or model.
Running a skill in chat: type / to find a skill, pick one, and it attaches to your message before you send.
Skills are instruction-only. When you run a Skill, Copilot executes your saved instructions in the current chat context, the same way you would type them yourself. You still direct Copilot to the schema or table you want to work on; the Skill supplies the instructions, not the target.
Letting Copilot propose a skill
You don't have to write every skill from scratch
When you and Copilot work out a repeatable approach together, such as a review checklist or a naming rule, you can ask Copilot to turn it into a skill.
Ask in plain language: "turn this into a skill" or "save this as a skill I can reuse". Copilot may also offer a proposal on its own when it recognizes a task worth saving.
The proposal appears as a card in the chat showing the skill's name. Nothing is saved at this point.
- Click Review to open the Skills manager with the name, description, and instructions already filled in.
- Change anything you want, then save it, or close without saving if you'd rather not keep it.
Copilot can also propose changes to a skill you already have. The card reads Propose skill update, and Review opens that skill with the proposed wording in place, so you can compare it against what's there before saving.
The skill is created or updated only when you save it yourself. Proposals are offered only to people who can create skills. If you can't create skills on a project, Copilot won't propose them there.
A good place to start is a document you already have. Attach your naming conventions, review checklist, or governance policy using the paperclip button next to the chat input, then ask Copilot to build a skill from it: "create a review skill from this document". Copilot reads the file and proposes a skill whose instructions follow those standards, so they're applied on demand instead of sitting in a document someone has to remember to open.
What teams use Skills for
A few examples
These are the kinds of Skills teams build. You author your own, tailored to how your organization works.
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
| Document all tables | Writes a plain-language description for every table and column that is missing one. |
| Generate data dictionary | Builds a full data dictionary for the selected schema, grouped by table, with types and keys. |
| Normalize to 3NF | Reviews the selected model and proposes a third-normal-form decomposition, with the reasoning. |
| Naming convention check | Flags tables and columns that break your team's naming standard. |
| PII audit | Scans the selected model for likely PII columns and tags them for review. |
| Suggest indexes | Analyzes the model and recommends indexes to add or drop. |
Who can do what
Built for teams, governed by your roles
Every skill has a scope, and the scope decides where it runs and who can change it. There is nothing else to configure. The editor asks for a name, a short note on when Copilot should use it, and the instructions themselves.
| Scope | Where it runs | Who can create, edit and delete it | Who can run it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project | That project only | Anyone who can edit the project | Everyone with access to the project |
| Organization | Every project of the account | Account administrators and alternative administrators | Everyone with access to any project in the account |
Running a skill needs no special access: if you can see it, you can run it. Because skills are shared, your conventions stay consistent across everyone who works with them.
Working with organization skills
Moving one up, or adapting one for your project
Moving a skill up. An administrator can take a skill a project has already written and change its Scope to Organization. The skill moves rather than being copied, so nothing is left behind in the project, and it cannot be moved back down.
Making a project version. To adapt an organization skill for one project, open it and use Duplicate. Change the name and you get a separate skill; keep the name and your project's version runs in place of the organization one.
Deleting. Deleting an organization skill removes it for everybody in the account, in every project.
Good to know. If a project and the organization both have a skill with the same name, the project's version is the one Copilot runs.