Skills & plugins

Skills and plugins make colleague work reusable. Treat both as governed building blocks because changes can affect every colleague that depends on them.

Skills

A skill packages instructions and supporting resources for a recurring kind of work. Use a skill when the organisation has a preferred method, template or quality bar that should be applied consistently.

Keep a skill focused. State when it should be used, the inputs it expects, the output it should produce and any checks a reviewer must perform.

Plugins

A plugin extends the capabilities available to colleagues. Review what a plugin can access and do before making it available. Its presence does not mean every colleague should receive it.

Add capability deliberately

1. Start from a real work requirement.
2. Review the skill or plugin scope.
3. Make it available only to the colleagues that need it.
4. Run a bounded test with non-sensitive inputs.
5. Inspect the result and any approval behavior.

Separate capability from credentials

A plugin may describe or expose an action, while a Connection provides controlled vendor access. Credentials remain in the gateway rather than inside the colleague runtime. See Connections.

Change management

When updating a shared skill or plugin, consider existing colleagues and scheduled jobs. Re-run representative work and communicate material changes to owners. If a capability is no longer required or trusted, remove it rather than leaving it dormant.

Review checklist

• Is the purpose and owner clear?
• Does it request more access than the work requires?
• Are expected inputs and outputs documented?
• Are sensitive actions routed for approval?
• Can a reviewer understand which capability influenced the result?