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A skill is a set of written instructions that a teammate follows for one kind of work, for example “write a cold email” or “reconcile the week’s payouts”. Skills come from four places:
  • Built-in skills that come with Squad. They cover the dashboard, email, the computer, research tools, and each connected app. They are on every squad. You do not manage them.
  • Skill packs: ready-made collections from independent authors.
  • Your skills: skills that your teammates wrote while they worked, and skills that you taught.
  • Custom packs that you add from a public GitHub repository.
Skill settings apply to the whole squad. When you turn a skill or a pack on or off, it changes for every teammate. To open the Skills screen, select Skills in the sidebar (under More unless you pinned it), select Skills at the bottom of a teammate’s About page, or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) and type Skills. Skills is no longer in Settings. Everyone in the squad can open Skills and read it. Only the owner and Administrators can turn skills and packs on or off, add, sync, or remove packs, and edit skills. An Administrator who can see only some teammates cannot make these changes, or teach a task. Squad refuses the change, because skills reach every teammate. For anyone who cannot switch a skill, its switch has the tooltip “Only the squad owner or an Administrator who works with every teammate can turn skills on or off.”

Turn a skill pack on or off

Squad includes four packs: The packs are copied from their authors’ repositories. Squad changes a file in a pack only to fix a bug that the author has not fixed yet. Jason Cohen, the author of asb-skills, does not endorse Squad.
  1. Open the Skills screen.
  2. Under Skill packs, select the switch on the pack’s card.
The change applies at once. If a skill in the pack has the same name as a skill that is already on the computer, the pack’s skill stays off, and a note tells you which skills stayed off. Select Open pack to choose which one to use. Each pack card shows the pack name, by and the author, the license, the number of GitHub stars when GitHub answers, the number of skills, how many of them are off, and the first six skill names. Select a card, or Open pack, to open the pack view. It shows the pinned version, and whether the pack is enabled for the squad or off. In the pack view you can:
  • turn the whole pack on or off with the switch next to its name
  • turn single skills in the pack on or off, while the pack is on. A skill that is off shows Off.
  • select a skill to read its instructions. Skill names in the text that point to another skill in the pack are links.
  • select Sync pack library to get the latest version that Squad published of the built-in packs. The result shows Updated to the latest. or Already up to date. When new skills have names that are already in use, the result says how many “stayed off (name already in use)” and names them.
The four built-in packs update together. When Squad publishes a new version of them, it may also update them on your cloud computer for you. This works like Sync pack library: the new skills in a pack that is on are on, except skills whose names are already in use, which stay off. Packs that are on stay on, and packs that are off stay off. Squad does not update the built-in packs on a schedule. You can turn off a built-in pack, but you cannot remove it.

Add a pack from GitHub

The skills in a pack become instructions that your teammates follow. Add only repositories that you trust.
1

Open Skills

Open the Skills screen.
2

Add a pack

Under Skill packs, select Add pack.
3

Paste the link

In the first field, paste the repository’s address, for example https://github.com/owner/repo. Or paste the link to a folder in it, for example https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/skills/marketing.
4

Set the skills folder (optional)

Optional: in Skills folder (optional), type the folder that holds the skills, for example skills/marketing. A folder that you type here wins over the folder in a link. Only that folder is fetched, unless it is in a Claude Code or Cursor plugin. See Add a Claude Code or Cursor plugin.
5

Add the pack

Select Add pack.
Rules:
  • Only public repositories on github.com work. Squad refuses other addresses, and links to a single file, with “Enter a public GitHub repository or folder link (https://github.com/owner/repo, or a folder in it).”
  • A folder link must be on the repository’s default branch, the one that GitHub shows first. A link to a folder on another branch is refused with “That link is to a folder on another branch. Open the folder on the repository’s main branch and copy that link.”
  • Each skill must be a folder that contains a SKILL.md file.
  • The folder path can be at most four levels deep.
  • A repository that is already a built-in pack is refused. Turn on the built-in pack instead.
The new pack is turned on at once. If the form is still open, the new pack’s page opens. The pack view shows the commit it is at and its folder. The pack’s card says “Gets the author’s latest version when you choose Sync to latest”. Squad does not fetch new versions on its own. To get the latest version from the repository, open the pack and select Sync to latest. New skills whose names are already in use stay off, and the result line names them. To delete the pack, select Remove pack, then Really remove?. For a plugin pack with MCP servers, see Remove a plugin pack. You cannot change the repository or the folder of a pack you added. Remove the pack and add it again.

Add a Claude Code or Cursor plugin

A repository folder is a Claude Code plugin when it has a .claude-plugin/plugin.json file, and a Cursor plugin when it has a .cursor-plugin/plugin.json file, in the skills folder or in a folder above it. You add it the same way as any pack, with the repository’s address or the link to the plugin’s folder, for example https://github.com/cursor/plugins/tree/main/dyl-stack. Squad then fetches the whole plugin folder, not only the skills folder, so the plugin’s skills can run its scripts and read its files. When the folder that you give, or the folder in the link, is the plugin’s own folder, Squad uses the skills folder that the plugin’s plugin.json names, or skills.
  • Where the plugin’s Markdown files name ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}, ${CURSOR_PLUGIN_ROOT}, or ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}, Squad replaces them with the path of the plugin’s folder and the path of a data folder of the pack’s own on your cloud computer.
  • The skills work for every teammate, on every AI provider, not only on Claude Code or Cursor.
  • Squad uses the plugin’s skills and offers its MCP servers. Its hooks, commands, and agents do not run.
  • A plugin in a folder of a larger repository is named after its folder, for example dyl-stack, not after the repository.
  • Sync to latest keeps the paths right for the new version.
  • Remove pack also deletes the pack’s data folder.
If Squad cannot set up the plugin’s files, adding or syncing the pack says “Could not set up the plugin’s own files on the computer, so nothing was changed. Try again in a minute.” The pack stays as it was. The add form says “Squad fetches that folder, or the whole plugin for a Claude Code or Cursor plugin, and keeps it in sync. A folder link works too.”

Connect a plugin’s MCP servers

A plugin’s skills often call the plugin’s own MCP servers. Squad reads them from the plugin: from mcpServers in its plugin.json, then from .mcp.json and mcp.json in the plugin folder. The pack’s page lists them under MCP servers, above the skills, with “This plugin’s skills use these servers. Connect them so the skills work.” Each row shows the server’s name and its address or command.
1

Open the pack

On the Skills screen, open the plugin pack.
2

Connect a server

Under MCP servers, select Connect on the server’s row. Settings > Apps > Custom integrations opens, with Add MCP server filled in with that server.
3

Fill in your values

Type the values that the plugin leaves to you, such as a key, then connect. See Add an MCP server.
When a server is saved in Custom integrations, its row shows Added and Open in Apps. Added means only that the server is saved. Its health shows in Custom integrations. Squad does not connect a server by itself. Turning the pack off or syncing it does not change the servers that you connected. A server that Squad cannot connect as written has no Connect. Its row says why:
  • “Can’t connect: Squad connects only https:// servers.”
  • “Can’t connect yet: it’s an SSE server, which Squad doesn’t support yet.”
  • “Can’t connect: its address doesn’t parse.”
  • “Can’t connect: it says stdio but has an address.”
An address that still waits for a value from you is checked when you select Connect. Only the owner, and an Administrator who works with every teammate, see the MCP servers section and Connect. Other people see the pack and its skills only. Squad lists some servers per pack, and leaves out a server whose values are too long or cannot be saved. See Limits and defaults.

A plugin that only connects an app

Some plugins have no skills, only MCP servers, for example a plugin that connects one app. When you add one, the form says “This plugin connects an app instead of adding skills.” (or “This plugin connects apps instead of adding skills.”) and lists the servers. With one server to add, select Connect on its row. With two or more, the rows have no button: select Connect and the number, for example Connect 2 servers, which opens one Add MCP server window with all of them. A server that Squad cannot connect is not counted, and its row says why. Squad adds no pack to Skills. Squad does not offer a server that runs from the plugin’s own files, because it could not start without the plugin. When a plugin has only such servers, adding it says “No skills were found in that folder. Each skill must be a folder containing a SKILL.md.”

Remove a plugin pack

Remove pack does not remove the MCP servers that you connected. They stay in Custom integrations. When one of them is saved, Really remove? also says “Its MCP servers stay in Apps. Remove them there if nothing else uses them.” Remove them in Custom integrations if you no longer need them. A connected server that runs from the pack’s files, or keeps a value that points into them, stops the remove. Then the first click on Remove pack removes nothing and does not ask Really remove?. It says: ”“[name]” runs from this pack’s files. Remove it in Apps first, then remove the pack.” With several servers, it names them all and says “Remove them in Apps first, then remove the pack.” Remove those servers in Custom integrations, then remove the pack. You can also ask a teammate in chat to turn a pack on, add one, sync one, or remove one. The owner, and an Administrator who can see every teammate, can also ask a teammate to turn a single skill on or off. See Skills, tools, and saved logins.
Ask your chief of staff

Manage your squad’s own skills

Your skills lists the skills that your teammates wrote and the skills that you taught. The counts at the top are Total, Disabled, and Needs setup.
  • Use Search skills or select a tag, for example #sales, to filter the list. All clears the tag filter.
  • Select the switch on a card to turn the skill on or off for every teammate. A skill that is off shows Disabled. A skill that is on shows no label.
  • Select Open to read the skill’s instructions and files.
Each card shows Built by and the teammate that wrote it, when the skill names its author. Otherwise it shows Squad skill, or Curated skill for a skill that came with Squad. A card can carry one of these labels: The run count on each card reads 0 today, even for skills that ran. To see which runs used a skill, use History. See Run a skill from chat. When the list is empty, the screen shows No skills built yet. See what’s possible opens ideas for work your squad can do. When a search finds nothing, it shows No skills match. When you open a skill, the page shows Skill instructions and, beside them, Files in this skill when the skill has more files than SKILL.md, Built by when the author is known, and Active. Select a file to read it. Hide details gives the instructions the full width, and Show details brings the side back.

Copy or edit a skill’s instructions

Open a skill. Above Skill instructions:
  • Copy copies the instructions. It shows Copied for a moment.
  • Edit opens the instructions as text that you can change. Select Save, or press ⌘S (Ctrl+S on Windows). To stop without saving, select Cancel or press Esc.
Edit shows only to the owner and Administrators, and only for your squad’s own skills. The skills in a pack and the skills that came with Squad cannot be edited here. If the instructions changed on your cloud computer while you were editing, the page says “These instructions changed while you were editing. Your words are still here.” Select Use their version to load the new text, or Save mine anyway to keep yours. If a save fails, the page says “Couldn’t save. Your words are still here; try again.” The dashboard has no button to create or delete a skill. To create or delete one, ask a teammate.

Skills on Squad for Mac

Skills work the same way on the Mac, with these differences:
  • Open Skills from Skills on a teammate’s About, or from Go > Skills. When it opens from a teammate, the list starts on Built by and the teammate’s name. Select All skills to see every skill.
  • The list is called Your squad’s skills. From version 1.0.105, a skill or a pack that is off is not dimmed. A person who has no switch for it sees Off. A card that cannot run yet shows Needs setting up, or Missing something it needs with what the skill needs. ✦ Fix with and the teammate’s name opens a chat with the fix written for you.
  • On a skill’s page, the instructions are one text that you can select across, like a message. The copy button beside Skill instructions (Copy these instructions) copies them. The page has no switch and no delete.
  • While you edit a skill’s instructions, Squad keeps your edit if you leave the skill and come back, until you switch squads or quit Squad.
  • From version 1.0.98, the add form, a plugin’s MCP servers, and a plugin that only connects an app work as on the web. Connect opens the Add MCP server window on Custom integrations in the Settings window. Older versions show no MCP servers. From version 1.0.101, a server that Squad cannot connect has no Connect either, and its row says why in other words for three of the cases: “Can’t connect: Squad connects only https:// addresses.”, “Can’t connect: its address isn’t a valid web address.”, and “Can’t connect: it gives a web address but says it runs as a program.” When a connected server runs from a pack’s files, Remove pack names it and removes nothing, with Open in Apps.
Ask your chief of staff
Teammates add tags to skills. To change tags, ask a teammate.

Run a skill from chat

1

Open the skill list

In a teammate’s chat or a group chat, type / in the composer. The Squad chat composer does not have the / picker.
2

Filter the list

Keep typing to filter the list.
3

Insert and send

Press Enter to insert the skill’s name into your message, then send it.
The list shows your squad’s skills, pack skills, research tools, and app skills. Skills that are turned off are not listed. To see which skills a run used, open the run in History. The skills show as chips on the run, and under Skills used in the run detail. See See what your squad did.

Teach a task by showing it once

You can show a teammate a task in its browser. The teammate studies the recording and writes a draft skill. The skill becomes active only when you approve it. Before you start:
  • Know the task well enough to do it once from start to end.
  • Sign in to the sites the task needs, in the teammate’s browser, or be ready to sign in during the recording.
  • You must be the owner or an Administrator who can see every teammate.
1

Open the teammate's computer

Open the teammate’s About page and select Watch. The teammate’s computer screen opens.
2

Select Teach a task

Select Teach a task.
3

Describe the task

In What are you about to show?, describe the task, for example “Reconcile the week’s Stripe payouts”.
4

Take over

Select Take over on the screen.
5

Start recording

Select Start recording. The teammate’s own browser comes to the front.
6

Do the task

Do the task once in that browser.
7

Stop teaching

Select Done teaching.
8

Send it to the teammate

Select Send to followed by the teammate’s name to study. The screen shows Learning from your demonstration….
9

Review the draft

When the draft is ready, read it in Review what the teammate learned.
10

Name the skill

In Skill name, type a name, for example reconcile-stripe-payouts.
11

Approve

Select Approve skill.
The recording captures your clicks and the values that you type. The review shows the exact file that becomes active. You cannot edit it in the review. If something is wrong, select Discard, or tell the teammate in the teaching conversation what to change and wait for a new draft. After you approve, the screen shows Skill added. Every teammate can use the skill. Select Run it once now to have the teammate try it and suggest improvements, or View skills to see it on the Skills screen. Other choices during teaching:
  • Keep recording continues the recording.
  • Discard recording throws the recording away.
  • Open the conversation opens the chat where the teammate reports on the draft.
  • Nudge again reminds the teammate if the draft takes a long time.
See Watch or take over a teammate’s computer. On Squad for Mac, start from Cloud computer, or from the computer card in the teammate’s chat, so that the teammate’s browser shows. Then choose Teach a Task… in the browser’s ⋯ menu. The other steps are the same. After you approve, the page shows ✓ Skill added, with Run it once now, View skills, and Done.

Skills and files named in instructions

When the instructions of a routine, a trigger, or a teammate’s heartbeat name a place on your cloud computer, for example /home/user/clawd/skills/x-trend-scout/SKILL.md, a chip under the instructions shows it by name: the skill’s name, or the file’s name. Point to the chip to see the full path. Select it to see what is there:
  • For a skill, or a file in a skill, the skill’s instructions or the file show, with Open skill and Copy path.
  • For any other file, Squad says that the file is on your cloud computer and that the teammate can show you what is in it. Ask and the teammate’s name to show it opens a chat with the request written. A Viewer gets only Copy path.
This works the same way on Squad for Mac, where the heartbeat is called check-ins.

Check that it works

  • A pack that is on shows the number of its skills and, when some are off, how many.
  • A taught skill shows under Your skills after you approve it.
  • A run that used a skill shows it under Skills used in History.

Troubleshooting

“Could not download the repository”. Cause: the URL is wrong, or the repository is private. Fix: check the URL. Only public GitHub repositories work. “No skills were found in that folder”. Cause: the folder has no subfolders with a SKILL.md file, or it is a plugin whose only MCP servers run from its own files. Fix: type the folder that holds the skill folders, or leave the field empty. “That link is to a folder on another branch”. Cause: the folder link points to a branch that is not the repository’s default branch. Fix: open the folder on the default branch, copy that link, and add it again. ”“[name]” runs from this pack’s files. Remove it in Apps first, then remove the pack.” Cause: a connected MCP server needs the pack’s files. Fix: remove the server in Settings > Apps > Custom integrations, then remove the pack. See Remove a plugin pack. “Skill packs aren’t set up on your cloud computer yet”. Cause: your cloud computer does not have the pack library yet. Fix: wait for the next platform update, then open the screen again. Teaching shows “Study stalled” or “Studying is taking too long”. Cause: the teammate has not written the draft yet. Fix: select Nudge again, or Open the conversation to see what the teammate says. If nothing changes, select Discard and teach the task again. “The draft was too large to review, so it was discarded.” Cause: the demonstration produced a draft that was too long to review. Fix: teach the task again with a shorter demonstration. A skill you turned on does not show in the / list. Cause: the list can take a moment to update. Fix: close the list, wait 30 seconds, and type / again.