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A skill is a set of reusable instructions that can use to better respond to your prompts. Skills are useful if you often give repetitive prompts—they provide guidelines and standards for to follow, which means you don’t need to include this information in every prompt. Skills are:
  • Intelligently activated: chooses when to use skills based on the prompts you give. For example, if you prompt to “create a new table” and you have created a skill that contains guidelines on table naming conventions, can choose to use this skill when creating your new table.
  • Resource-aware: Skills can reference additional files, such as template documents or example pipelines, that are stored in the same folder as the skill file. These can be used to provide with more context. These files can be Markdown files, pipelines, or Python or SQL scripts if these are supported in your environment.
  • Stackable: can use multiple skills in its response if relevant. This depends on how it interprets your prompt, as described above.
For more information about agent skills in a wider context, read the Agent Skills documentation.

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When to use skills and context files

Skills and context files should be used in different ways to help understand your data and provide better responses to your prompts. The table below clarifies some of the differences between skills and context files.

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Creating skills

To create a skill:
  1. In the bottom left of the chat panel, click View and manage skills.
  2. Click Skills.
  3. Click Add new skill.
This will start a conversation with in which you can tell the purpose of the skill and ask it to build the skill for you. You can also describe the problem you are trying to solve, and ask to create a corresponding skill. For example, you could give the following prompts:
  • “Create a skill to enforce naming standards for all new tables and columns.”
  • “Create a skill for loading data from Jira, using @my-jira-pipeline as an example pipeline. All new pipelines loading data from Jira should use the same authentication and connection options.”
In the second example, you can add the my-jira-pipeline orchestration pipeline to the folder that creates containing the SKILL.md file. This will prompt to use the example pipeline as additional context when using this skill. Each SKILL.md file contains the name of the skill and a description of the skill at the top of the file. uses this description to determine when to use the skill. Make sure that this description clearly explains the purpose of the skill, so that activates it when suitable. The rest of the file contains the information that needs to use the skill, such as naming conventions, guidelines, and additional context. It’s important to remember that will interpret these as guidance, not hard-coded rules. If you want to provide stricter instructions for to follow, use context files.

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Best practices when creating skills

  • Write effective descriptions
    • Clearly define the trigger: Describe the specific scenarios or tasks where the skill applies.
    • Use keywords: Include terms or phrases that are likely to appear in related prompts.
    • Avoid overlap: Ensure each skill has a distinct purpose that doesn’t conflict with other skills.
  • Structure instructions clearly
    • Start with the goal: Begin with what the skill should accomplish. Clearly describe the result or output that you want to produce when using the skill.
    • Provide step-by-step guidance: Break complex procedures into numbered steps. If a skill involves a decision, clearly direct to the right step for each outcome.
    • Include templates: If you want the skill to produce structured output in a specific format, provide example templates.
    • Specify constraints: Note any requirements, limitations, or standards that apply.
    • Keep skills focused: Write one skill per task to avoid confusion and incorrect output. If the scope of a skill becomes too broad, split the tasks into multiple targeted skills.
  • Test and refine descriptions and instructions
    • Test with varied prompts: Try different ways to prompt to use the skill, and adjust the description if the skill doesn’t trigger when you want it to.
    • Check for false activations: Try unrelated prompts to make sure that the skill doesn’t trigger for unrelated tasks.
    • Iterate based on results: Check ‘s output when using the skill, and edit the instructions if its output doesn’t match your expectations.

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Importing skills from other tools

If you have created SKILL.md skill files for use in other tools, such as Claude Code or Cursor, and want to use these in , you can manually import them into as a skill that can use:
  1. Create a new folder for the skill in the skills folder, i.e. .matillion/maia/skills/[new-skill].
  2. Copy the relevant instructions from your existing skill into a new SKILL.md file in the folder you created.
  3. Add the name and description of the new skill at the top of the file.
  4. Review and adjust the instructions in the skill so that it accurately reflects when you want to use the skill, your project context, and what you want to do.

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Making skills available at project level

Skills are committed and pushed in the same way as pipelines in your project. Once you have created a skill in your branch and pushed it to the remote, other users in the same project can merge from branch to pull your changes into their own branch. This will allow them to use the skill you have created.

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Using skills in Maia Team prompts

will automatically use any relevant skills whenever you prompt to complete a task. If you want to tell to use a specific skill, type @ in the chat panel, followed by the name of your skill. The SKILL.md file in the corresponding skill’s folder will appear in a dynamic list—press Enter or click the skill to reference it in your prompt.

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Viewing and editing skills

You can view a list of all skills available in your project by clicking View and manage skills, then Skills in the bottom left of the chat panel, or by navigating to the .matillion/maia/skills folder in the Files panel. All skills in your project must be stored in the .matillion/maia/skills folder so that can use them. Within the .matillion/maia/skills folder, you can organize skills in any folder structure you choose—for example, organize skills into folders for different teams in your organization. You can also add subfolders within a skill’s folder, and will still be able to access them. To edit a skill, open the SKILL.md file for the corresponding skill. You can do this in two ways:
  • In the bottom left of the chat panel, click View and manage skills, then click Skills, and then click the skill you want to edit.
  • In the Files panel, open the .matillion/maia/skills folder and navigate to the corresponding SKILL.md file.

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Built-in skills

has access to built-in skills that are designed to help with common tasks and use cases in . These built-in skills cannot be edited. The table below lists the built-in skills that can use to respond to your prompts.