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Skills are available to everyone on your team who has access to Nova. If Nova doesn’t appear in your dashboard sidebar, see Getting started with Nova.
Skills are reusable workflows for tasks with several steps or specific requirements. If you regularly ask Nova for the same detailed task, such as a referral report in a particular format, save the instructions as a skill. You can then run the workflow with one command. Skills are different from custom instructions. Instructions are background preferences Nova applies to every conversation. A skill is a playbook for one specific task that Nova only uses when that task comes up.

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Creating a skill

1

Open the Skills page

Click Nova in the dashboard sidebar, then Skills. The page shows Your skills (workflows you or your team have set up) and From Let’s Do This (built-in skills that are ready to use).
2

Click Create new skill

A panel opens with four fields:
  • Name this skill. A short, plain name for the workflow, up to 80 characters.
  • Shortcut. The command you type in a chat to run the skill straight away, for example referral-report. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, between 2 and 40 characters.
  • When should Nova use this? Describe the kind of workflow the skill should handle, and include words someone might use when asking. Nova reads this to detect when the skill is relevant. Between 20 and 500 characters.
  • What should Nova do? Write out the steps Nova should follow. The more specific you are, the better the result. Up to 5,000 characters.
3

Save the skill

Click Save skill. The skill is now live, and you can type its /shortcut in any chat to run it.
Each skill name and shortcut must be unique among the skills you can see. Choose a different name or shortcut if another personal, team, or built-in skill already uses it. You can have up to 50 personal skills.

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Drafting a skill with Nova

You can ask Nova to draft a skill instead of writing one yourself. Click Create one with Nova in the create panel, or ask in a chat. After you complete a multi-step task, Nova may also offer to save the workflow. Review the New skill card and choose Save skill or Skip. Nova saves nothing until you choose Save skill.

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Using a skill in a chat

You can use a skill in either of these ways:
  • Type its shortcut. Type / at the start of the chat input to see a list of your skills with their descriptions. Pick one, or keep typing to filter. You can send the shortcut on its own to run the skill, or mention it inside a longer request.
  • Let Nova pick it. Nova automatically uses a skill when your request matches its description. That’s why a clear “When should Nova use this?” field matters.
When Nova uses a skill, the response includes a Skill used note with its name. Nova continues to follow that skill for your follow-up messages in the same conversation. Nova can use up to five skills in one response.

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Sharing a skill with your team

New skills are personal by default. To make one available to your organization, open its menu on the Skills page and choose Share with team. Team members can then use it in their Nova chats, and skill managers can edit or archive it. Sharing moves the skill to the team; it is no longer personal. You can hide a shared or built-in skill from your own chats by choosing Disable for you in its menu. This does not affect anyone else’s access.

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Editing and archiving

Open a skill’s menu and choose Edit to change any field. Built-in skills from Let’s Do This can’t be edited, but you can disable them for yourself. Choose Archive to stop Nova from using a skill. You can restore it later from Archived skills. Archiving a team skill affects everyone on your team; you’ll see a confirmation before it is archived. If another skill uses the same name or shortcut when you restore it, Nova adds a number to the restored skill’s name.

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Rejected saves

If you see Skill text rejected when saving, revise the skill and try again. Nova checks for instructions that try to change its behavior, such as telling it to ignore its guidelines or pretend to be someone else. If the skill was rejected by mistake, describe the task directly instead of assigning Nova a persona.

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Concurrent edits

If you see Out of date when saving, a teammate has changed the skill since you opened it. Reopen the latest version and apply your edits there.