Skills, @ and /
Save instructions once and run them with /name, and point Benchy at anything with @.
What a skill is
A skill is a set of instructions Benchy follows for one task, such as preparing a model for printing or writing a product listing. Write it once, then run it by name: /print-prep. A skill belongs to the person who saved it and only they can change it. In a workspace you were invited to, Benchy uses the skills from your home workspace.
Run a skill with /
Type / at the start of a word in any chat and the skills menu opens. Keep typing to narrow it, and press Enter to add the skill to your message. The first row is Save this chat as a skill, which asks Benchy to draft a skill from what you have just done together — you approve it before it is saved.
Short clip: typing / in a chat and running a skill from the menu.
A canvas has a Skills pane instead of a menu: open a skill to read it, keep the ones you use as favourites, and choose Give to Benchy or Use in Generate.
Point Benchy at something with @
Type @, or choose + beside the message box, to add what the request is about:
- Add files from this device.
- Add from a canvas — a saved Element, at the revision you pick.
- Add a skill, for this message only.
- Add a document, yours or one shared with you.
- Add a model you published on World, by name and version.
- Add from Google Drive. See Connections.
Benchy checks that you can open each thing you add, and opens it with your access. In a chat with other people, what you add is shared with them at the version you sent. See Sharing in a chat.
Write a skill
Open Skills and choose New skill, or ask Benchy to turn what you just did together into one. A skill is a name, a one-line description that says when it applies, and the steps. What the Skills page shows is exactly what / runs.
---
name: supplier-quote
description: Ask a print supplier for a quote from the project's print files.
---
1. Read BENCHY.md for the material, colour and quantity.
2. List the print files in Made by Benchy, with sizes and plate counts.
3. Draft a short email asking for price and lead time. Show it to me before sending.Write the steps as instructions, in the order you would give them to a person. The editor takes Markdown, and / inside it inserts headings, lists, tables and code blocks. Ordinary documents, such as notes and briefs, belong in a project as docs — see Canvases and docs.
A skill's page can be shared with other people to edit, like a doc; the skill Benchy runs stays the saver's own. A skill that is switched off shows Off beside its title, and Benchy doesn't use it until you switch it on again.
Pages in a skill
A skill is a folder. SKILL.md comes first and holds the steps; anything longer — a reference table, a checklist, a worked example — goes in a page beside it, and the pages show as tabs above the editor. Benchy reads SKILL.md every time the skill runs and opens a page only when a step points to it, so a long reference costs nothing until it is needed.
Version history
Each time you update a skill, Benchy keeps that version, and it keeps versions of each page beside SKILL.md too. Open the page you want in the skill, then open the ⋯ menu and choose Version history to see when each version was saved, whether it came from the skill page, from Benchy or from a connected agent such as Codex, and what it changed.
Restore this version puts it back in the page you are on as one edit, and Undo takes it back. For SKILL.md, anyone editing the page with you sees it straight away, and Benchy goes on running the current version until you choose Update skill, which keeps the restored text as a new version. Other pages save themselves as you edit, so Benchy uses a restored page right away. Either way a restore never loses the version it replaced. You restore one page at a time; to put back the whole skill, restore SKILL.md and then each page that changed.
Pages save as you type, so edits made within ten minutes of each other are kept as one version. Benchy keeps the last 30 versions of a skill, across SKILL.md and its pages, or fewer for a very long one. Whatever else is edited, each page and SKILL.md always keeps its current version. The history is yours alone, even when you share the skill's page.
Skills in other agents
- Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other connected agents can list and read your skills in the workspace they are connected to, and follow one when you ask for it by name. See Connect your agent.
- Each skill you have enabled is also offered to the agent as a prompt under the skill's own name, so a skill named
print-prepis/print-prepin an agent that shows prompts as commands. A key needs the Memories and skills area for this. - Download any skill as a
SKILL.mdfile to use with an agent that isn't connected to Benchy.
Skills from Benchy
Benchy publishes its own skills under MIT. Each page shows the full instructions, the version, and how to install them in Claude Code. If you import one into your Skills, that copy is yours: it starts its own history, and a new version here doesn't change it.