A skill is a saved method: a named way of doing a piece of analysis — the process and the output conventions — that the analysts can apply in any future chat. If you find yourself re-explaining the same routine (“my comps run,” “the earnings one-pager the way I like it”), that’s a skill.
Two ways. In chat: refine a method until it’s right, then say “save this as a skill” — the analyst asks you to confirm the name and saves it. Or open the Skills page from the sidebar (⌘⇧S) to write and edit skills directly. A set of built-in starter skills comes with the product.
Three routes. Mention it by name — “run my comps skill on the European insurers.” Pick it from the Skills chip in the composer, or type / and its name. Or use the Apply a skill action on any answer to run a skill against what’s already on the table. The analyst loads the method and follows it.
Skills deliberately store the how, not the numbers: any figure the method needs is fetched live each time the skill runs. A skill saved last quarter doesn’t smuggle last quarter’s data into today’s answer.
A skill can carry its own calc script — a fixed piece of analysis code that runs in the sandbox with fresh data each run. That makes repeated quantitative routines exactly reproducible: same method, same code, today’s data.