Skills

A skill is a tool an agent can use during a chat. Skills are how agents do anything beyond talking — search the web, edit files, send email, run a command on a remote machine.

How skills work

Each skill is a small folder with:

• a manifest.json — name, description, the tool calls it exposes, which roles it ships with by default
• an execute.mjs — the JS that runs when the agent calls one of the tools
• optional rules.md — extra system-prompt rules injected when the skill is enabled

OpenEnsemble ships with a curated set under skills/, and each user can have their own private skills under users/{userId}/skills/.

Built-in skills

Skill	What the agent can do
coder	Edit files and run shell commands inside a bubblewrap sandbox; manage multi-file projects
coordinator	Delegate incoming messages to specialist agents
deep_research	Multi-step web research saved as persistent research documents
email	Unified Gmail / Microsoft Exchange / IMAP mailbox access
expenses	Parse receipts, invoices, bank statements; track spending across groups
gcal	View and manage Google Calendar events
image_generator	Text-to-image generation
nodes	Run commands and transfer files to remote machines via the OE node agent
role_tutor	Adaptive tutor with per-subject mastery tracking
role_video_generator	Text-to-video generation
profile_files	List and read profile documents and media, including files shared with you
skill-builder	Create and edit custom skills at runtime
tasks	Schedule recurring and one-time agent tasks
web	Brave Search and URL fetch
self-mgmt	Edit the agent’s own memory, name, and prompt
delegate	Hand work to other agents (used by the Coordinator)
user-admin	Manage users (owner/admin only)
logs	Read server logs (admin only)
utility	Time, calculator, small helpers

Enabling skills on an agent

Roles set sensible defaults — a Coder gets coder, web, tasks; a Researcher gets deep_research, web, tasks. To change which skills a single agent has, open its edit panel → Tools.

To change the default set for a role across all your agents using that role, edit the role under Settings → Skills → Roles.

If a task needs a disabled skill, your assistant names it and asks whether to enable it. Reply yes or choose Enable and continue. OE enables that skill for your account and continues the original request. Reply no or choose Cancel to leave it disabled. Approvals belong to that conversation and expire after ten minutes.

Administrator-managed or restricted skills still require your administrator. Enabling a skill preserves hidden-tool and model settings; a service that requires a connected account or API key may still need that setup. Background workers report missing skills to the assistant so approval can happen in your chat.

Per-skill setup

Open Skills (the grid icon in the sidebar, or Menu → Skills on mobile) to see Finance, Tutor, and your custom skill drawers as app icons. Search by name, then select an icon to open that skill’s drawer. All skills returns to the grid and keeps your search and scroll position. Custom skills with drawers appear here automatically; disabled drawers stay hidden.

Some skills need additional configuration before they work:

• email — connect at least one mailbox in Settings → Profile → Connected Accounts; see Email & calendar.
• gcal — connect Google Calendar in the same place (uses Google OAuth).
• web — needs a Brave Search API key in Settings → Profile → Brave Search API.
• image_generator — needs at least one image-capable provider enabled in Providers (Fireworks Flux, xAI Grok image models, OpenAI’s image models, etc.). Pick whichever you have a key for; the skill picks up any provider that exposes an image-generation model.
• nodes — needs at least one paired node (see Remote nodes).
• profile_files — reads your uploaded files and accessible shares. See Documents & sharing.

Skill assignment

Settings → Skills separates Roles, Custom Skills, and Tools. Assign a custom skill with its agent picker. In an ensemble, it has one stored owner; Single assistant mode makes enabled capabilities available to the primary while preserving those assignments for a later switch back. The /claim and /release menus include roles and custom skills.

See Roles for per-role and per-skill Execution settings, and MCP connections for external tool servers.

Custom skills

Anyone can write a skill. The skill-builder skill lets an agent author one for you — say “build me a skill that turns a postcode into the local weather forecast” and your coder/coordinator will scaffold it. See Building custom skills.