How skills work

What is a skill?

A text file named SKILL.md, in plain words: its name, when to follow it, then its steps, and sometimes other texts it needs beside it. It holds words only, never a program. It is an open format that other AI apps read too, so a skill written for one of them can come into Jean, and yours can go to them.

Which ones come ready-made?

For every day, such as Formal letter, Budget and In plain words; for work, such as Project plan and What could go wrong; for learning, such as Flash cards and Study plan; and to draw and present, such as Chart, Slides, PowerPoint and Make a game. They work from your first request: when one fits, the brain reads it and it joins your skills; a message says so, with See it to open its page. One of them, Visual answers, is on from the start.

How do I add my own?

Ask Jean to save how something was done, in your own words. The third time you ask for the same kind of thing, Jean offers it too. Or open Settings › Skills › Add a skill: Make one with Jean asks you a few questions, then saves it with an example to try; From a file takes a SKILL.md that someone you trust sent you; From a site takes one that a site or an organisation publishes.

Skills from a site

From a site reads what a few chosen sources publish for work: small business, marketing, sales, human resources, legal work and customer support. Press Browse them to see them; below them, type a site’s address, its skills index or a GitHub repository, and press Add to see its skills too. None comes in until you have read its steps and pressed Add this skill, and your requests are compared with them on this device.

When does Jean follow one?

With each request, the brain has the list of your skills, each with its name and when it is followed. When a request matches one, it reads that skill’s steps and follows them. To choose yourself, type / in the box and pick a skill by its name: it is followed for that message. A skill turned off is never followed.

Where are they kept?

In this browser, on this device, encrypted, with the rest of your work: each skill is a SKILL.md in a folder of its own. One you make or add in a project of yours stays in it; the others are in every project. They go into your backups, and Sync takes them to your other computers. Save as a file, on a skill’s page, gives you its SKILL.md to keep or to pass on.

Good to know

• Skills is one of the capabilities Jean offers when a moment calls for it. To have it sooner, turn it on in Settings › Capabilities: see How Jean shows what it can do.
• Settings › Skills says which skill was followed last, then lists them all. The page of one of yours shows When it is followed, an example with Try it, its steps and how many times it was followed: Edit changes it there, and Change it with Jean opens a task to change it together.
• A ready-made skill keeps up with Jean’s updates, and can’t be deleted, only turned off, with the switch at the top of its page. To change one, ask Jean in a task: from then on it is yours.
• With a brain in the cloud, the list of your skills goes with each request, and a skill’s steps when it is followed: see What the AI sees.
• At work, your organisation may add sources of its own, which you can’t remove, or keep to them alone.

If it doesn’t work

Still stuck?

Ask Jean in your own words, for instance: Which skills do I have, and when do you follow each one?

If that doesn’t help, write to arnaud@jean.is.

See also

• How Jean shows what it can do
• What the AI sees
• Where your work is kept