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A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file: instructions the agent can load when a task needs them. Bellows ships built-in skills, and your repository can add its own.

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Call a skill from a task

In the New task composer, type / at the start of the prompt or after a space. A Skills menu opens. Keep typing to filter by name, use the arrow keys, and press Enter to insert the name. Press Escape to close the menu.
Prompt
A /name in the prompt tells the agent to load that skill and follow it. Skills from your repository are tagged repo in the menu. A path such as a/b or a URL isn’t treated as a skill. A task can select up to 16 skills.

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Built-in skills

All built-in names start with factory-. Some skills need a tool or a connection. factory-github and factory-pr-land need a GitHub connection. factory-jira needs a Jira connection. Add them under Settings → Integrations. A task doesn’t offer the agent a skill whose connection it doesn’t hold, unless you selected that skill in the prompt. Bellows decides this once, when the task or its follow-up is created, so a connection you add later shows up from the next follow-up. GET /api/jobs/:id lists the hidden skills and why under hiddenSkills. An organization admin can switch a built-in skill off with PUT /api/org/skills/builtin/<name>/enabled and the body {"enabled": false}. A switched-off skill leaves the menu and is hidden from new tasks in that organization.

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Add a skill to your repository

Commit a folder under .claude/skills/ with a SKILL.md:
Repository layout
.claude/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md
Bellows reads up to 50 skill folders from the repository at the task’s branch. A folder whose SKILL.md can’t be read or parsed is skipped.
A repository skill can’t take a factory- name, so it never replaces a built-in.

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Organization and workspace skills

Bellows also supports skills shared across your organization and skills owned by one member. Both live under Settings → Skills, in the My workspace and Organization sections: list them, switch one on or off, view its SKILL.md and files, download it as a zip, delete it, or (for an admin) promote a workspace skill to the organization. Members see the organization’s skills read-only. Both are also created through the API, as a SKILL.md or a zip of up to 64 files and 5 MiB. When names clash, the more personal skill wins: your workspace skill, then the repository’s, then the organization’s, then a built-in. A stored skill can declare what it needs under metadata: with requires-connections, and is hidden from tasks without that connection like the built-ins above. A zip upload takes the skill’s name from its SKILL.md. Editing only the SKILL.md of a stored skill keeps its other files; send the baseVersionId you edited, and if someone saved a newer version first the edit is refused with 409 SKILL_VERSION_STALE so you can reload. GET /api/org/skills/<id>/zip and GET /api/workspace/skills/<id>/zip download a skill as a zip, and GET /api/skills/builtin/<name> shows a built-in skill’s files and the Bellows release it ships with.
On a running task, a workspace skill that the repository also holds isn’t guaranteed to win. Give them different names.

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From the CLI

bellows skill list shows the skills available to you.