The course has two kinds of pages: prompts and skills. A prompt is a message for a one-off task. A skill is an instruction the agent remembers and carries out the same way every time.
How they differ
| Prompt | Skill | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | One message to the agent | A text file with an instruction: the order of work, checks, the answer format |
| When to use it | You need the task now, maybe only once | The work repeats: every morning, every week, for every new idea |
| How to run it | Copy it, adjust it for yourself and send it | Install it once, then write "Use premarket" |
| Where it lives | In the current chat | In the agent's skills folder or at the start of the chat |
| Answer | A little different each time | The same format every time |
Example: Previous day's levels and alerts is a prompt, and The premarket skill does the same and more, but in a fixed format and with one short phrase.
How to tell them apart on a page
Prompt pages and skill pages have different sections:
| Prompt page | Skill page | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | The name of the task, for example "Previous day's levels and alerts" | "The ... skill" with its name, for example "The premarket skill" |
| First section | "Prompt": a ready-made request you copy and send | "How to install": a line for the agent, the .SKILL.md file and the instruction text |
| How to run it | Send the same request in full, adjusted for yourself | With a short phrase: "Use premarket..." |
| What comes next | "What happens": a chat with the agent's answer | "What you get": a chat with the agent's answer in the skill's format |
How to install a skill
- Open the skill's page and copy its text or download the
.SKILL.mdfile. - Paste the text into the agent's chat and add the line from the page on top, for example: "Save this as a skill named "premarket"".
- If the app can save skills, the agent writes the file to its skills folder. If it can't, it follows the instruction in this chat, and in a new chat you need to paste the text again.
A skill is plain text. No program gets installed, and you can read the instruction right on the page before installing it.
How to run a skill
Name it in your message and add your own parameters:
Use premarket. Prepare me for the day on ETHUSDT, 5 minutes.
The agent finds the instruction and carries out its steps in order. If two skills fit, for example the built-in Day Map and premarket, name the one you want in the request.
More from the agent developers
The developers explain how to write requests and how skills work on their own pages:
| Agent | Prompts | Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Desktop and Claude Code | Prompt engineering overview | Skills explained, What are skills? |
| Codex | Prompting | Build skills |
| Cursor | Rules | Agent Skills |
| VS Code with GitHub Copilot | Prompt files | Agent Skills |