---
title: "Skills"
description: "Skills are packaged instructions a Worker loads when a task matches. Fredrin ships built-ins, and you can install third-party skills from Settings."
url: "https://www.fredrin.com/docs/skills"
updated: "2026-08-13"
---

# Skills

A skill is a packaged set of instructions for a particular kind of task. When a Worker hits work a skill covers, it loads that skill instead of improvising.

## Built-in skills

Fredrin ships skills for the work every project has:

- **Ticket management** - creating, updating and moving tickets, plus reading project connectors and notes.
- **Changelog** - turning shipped commits into a written release entry.
- **Plan grilling** - interrogating a plan before a Worker starts on it, one question at a time.

These are available to Workers with no setup.

## Installing third-party skills

**Settings → Skills.** Point it at a skill source and it becomes available to your Workers.

This is worth saying plainly because the opposite is often assumed: you are not limited to what Fredrin ships. Skills from the wider ecosystem work here.

## Writing your own

A skill is a directory with a markdown file describing when to use it and what to do. If your team has a procedure a Worker keeps getting almost right, that procedure is a skill.

Good candidates:

- A deploy or release runbook with real steps and real gotchas.
- A review checklist specific to your domain.
- A repo-specific workflow that is too long for AGENTS.md and too structured for a ticket description.

## Skills versus project context

They overlap, and the line is worth drawing.

**[Project context](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/memory)** is what is true about your codebase. Every Worker reads the relevant slice, always.

**A skill** is a procedure for a kind of task. A Worker loads it when the task matches, and ignores it otherwise.

"Sessions are validated in the auth middleware, not per route" is context. "How to cut a release" is a skill.

## Next steps

- [Project memory](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/memory) - the always-on half.
- [MCP server](https://www.fredrin.com/docs/mcp) - a different extension point.