What it means
A skill defines when to activate, what context to gather, how to execute, and what “done” looks like; the agent reads it at runtime (often from a SKILL.md file).
Why designers should care
Skills turn tribal prompt knowledge into durable workflow assets. Designers should own or co-own skills for critique, research synthesis, and design-system compliance.
Example
A UX team publishes a Usability Testing skill; invoking /usability-test in Cursor loads interview guides, synthesis schema, and report template in one run.
Common mistakes
- Skills so generic they behave like a short system prompt with no steps.
- No discovery path. Users must know the exact slash command.
- Skills duplicated across repos with no shared library or version.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Agent Skill?
An agent skill is packaged, reusable expertise an AI assistant loads for a specific job, accessibility audit, PRD draft, Figma handoff, without the user rewriting instructions each time.
Why should designers care about Agent Skill?
Skills turn tribal prompt knowledge into durable workflow assets. Designers should own or co-own skills for critique, research synthesis, and design-system compliance.
What are common mistakes with Agent Skill?
Skills so generic they behave like a short system prompt with no steps; No discovery path. Users must know the exact slash command; Skills duplicated across repos with no shared library or version.