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Skills are how you teach Synti’s agent to do something your way, repeatably. A skill is a SKILL.md file—plain markdown instructions with a little metadata—that the agent adds to its toolkit. Once a skill exists, the agent draws on it automatically when a task matches, or you can invoke it directly with an @mention. Think of a skill as a saved procedure: “how we write commit messages,” “how we run a release,” “how we review authentication changes.” Synti’s skills follow the open Agent Skills standard, so a SKILL.md written for Synti is compatible with other tools that support the same format.

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Creating a skill

The easiest way to make one is to ask:
“Create a skill called commit that writes conventional commit messages.”
The agent knows where skills live and how they’re formatted, so it writes the SKILL.md for you—name, description, and instructions included. You can then refine the file by hand.

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File layout

Each skill is a folder inside your workspace:
SKILL.md is YAML frontmatter followed by markdown. The frontmatter sets metadata and when the skill activates; the body is the instructions the agent follows.
SKILL.md

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Frontmatter fields

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How the agent uses skills

There are two ways a skill comes into play.
1

Automatically

When your request matches a skill’s description—or you’re touching files that match its globs—the agent applies the skill on its own, without being asked.
2

By mention

Invoke a skill directly by name with @:
Mentioning a skill guarantees the agent uses it for that turn.

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Pre-authorizing tools and sources

Two frontmatter fields make skills run smoothly:
  • alwaysAllow lists tools the agent may use during the skill without stopping to ask, so a well-scoped skill runs without repeated approval prompts. It works alongside your Permissions settings.
  • requiredSources names sources to enable for the session the moment the skill is invoked. The agent has those tools available from the first turn—no manual authentication mid-task. A deploy skill might declare your CI MCP server, for example.

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Overriding built-in skills

Workspace skills take precedence over built-in ones. To customize built-in behavior, create a skill with the same slug in your workspace—Synti uses your version instead. This lets you tailor default procedures to your team’s conventions without losing the ability to fall back later.
Keep each skill focused on one job with a crisp description. A precise description is what lets the agent recognize when the skill applies, so tight scoping makes automatic activation more reliable.