Scout Skills

Scout Skills give agents focused capabilities they can load on demand. Use them when you want reliable behavior around Scout APIs, workflow execution or other domain-specific tasks.

What are Scout Skills?

Scout Skills are reusable instruction bundles for agents. Each skill lives in a folder and includes a SKILL.md file with:

• Metadata: Name and description in frontmatter
• Execution guidance: What to do, when to do it and how to handle errors
• Tool context: API endpoints, auth requirements and usage examples

Why Skills?

Make Behavior Consistent

Without a skill, agents can improvise too much. A skill gives them a tested playbook:

• Clear triggers: The agent knows when to use the skill
• Correct API patterns: The agent follows known endpoints and payload shapes
• Safer execution: The skill documents auth, limits and failure handling

Reusability

Build once, use everywhere:

• Share skills across multiple agents
• Version and update capabilities in one place
• Create focused skills for each team or workflow

Separation of Concerns

Keep your agent prompts clean:

• Complex tool instructions live in skills
• Agents simply reference the skill by name
• Update skills without changing agent configurations

How Skills Work

When an agent is given access to a skill:

1. Load: The skill’s SKILL.md is added to agent context.
2. Route: The agent checks the skill description and decides if it matches the request.
3. Execute: The agent follows the skill instructions and calls the right tool or endpoint.
4. Respond: The agent returns results, then handles errors or follow-up actions.

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   Agent     │────▶│    Skill    │────▶│   Tools     │
│             │     │  (SKILL.md) │     │  (APIs)     │
└─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘
       │                                        │
       └────────────────────────────────────────┘
                   Results flow back

Skill Components

SKILL.md

The instruction file that teaches the agent how to use the skill:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it
---
 
# Skill Instructions
 
Detailed documentation on:
- Available tools and endpoints
- When to use each capability
- Authentication requirements
- Example usage patterns

Real Example: scoutos/scout-skills

The official Scout skills repository currently includes:

• scout: Collections, tables, documents, agents, drive, syncs and usage APIs
• scout-workflow: Workflow execution, streaming runs, revisions and CLI workflows as code

Browse the repo: github.com/scoutos/scout-skills 

Installation

Install skills using the Scout CLI:

# Install from GitHub
npx skills add scoutos/scout-skills

After install, agents can load the skills by name (scout, scout-workflow) based on your task.

Authentication

Most Scout skills call authenticated APIs. Start with an API key:

1. Create a key in Scout: Settings -> API Keys
2. Store it as an environment variable
3. Pass it as a Bearer token in API requests

Example:

# Set credentials as environment variables
export SCOUT_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Next Steps

• Available Skills: Explore built-in skills for Scout
• Creating Skills: Learn to build custom skills

Built with ❤️ by Scout OS