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Skills are the discrete, reusable capabilities that agents use to get work done. When an agent needs to send an email, fetch data from an API, or transform information, it uses a skill.

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What are Skills?

Think of skills as the “verbs” in your automation vocabulary. Each skill is a well-defined action with:
  • Clear inputs — What information it needs
  • Predictable outputs — What it returns
  • Specific purpose — One thing done well

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Skill Types

Atomic Skills

Single-action building blocksOne integration call, one purpose. Examples: send email, post tweet, fetch spreadsheet data.

Composite Skills

Multi-step workflowsCombine multiple atomic skills into complex operations. Examples: research and summarize, fetch and transform data.

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How Agents Use Skills

When your workflow runs, agents automatically discover and execute the right skills for their tasks.
1

Discover

The agent searches for skills that match its current task.
2

Select

It picks the best skill based on the task requirements.
3

Execute

The skill runs with validated inputs and returns structured outputs.
You don’t need to manually assign skills. Agents find what they need based on your Playbook’s role descriptions and connected integrations.

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Skills and Integrations

Skills often use your connected integrations to interact with external services.
Skill ExampleIntegration Used
Send emailGmail
Post updateSlack
Read spreadsheetGoogle Sheets
Search the webExa
When you define a role in your Playbook, Aident automatically determines which skills and integrations that agent needs access to.

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Built-in Skills

Aident provides hundreds of pre-built skills across categories:
  • Send and read emails
  • Post to messaging platforms
  • Schedule calendar events

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Skill Boundaries

Each agent has a defined skill boundary — the set of skills it can access based on its role and connected integrations. This boundary ensures:
  • Security — Agents only access what they need
  • Predictability — Clear limits on agent capabilities
  • Auditability — Easy to understand what each agent can do

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Next Steps

Connect Integrations

Enable skills by connecting your tools

Create a Playbook

Define roles that use skills