Understanding and Using AI Skills

John Savill explains what “AI skills” are, why they matter for working with AI assistants, and how to use them effectively through progressive disclosure, sequencing, and practical examples, including where skills can be used in environments like GitHub Copilot.

Overview

The video introduces the idea of AI skills by starting with an analogy (how to cut down a tree) and then mapping that to how people should think about giving an AI assistant structured, reusable capabilities.

Key themes covered include:

• What an AI skill is and how it differs from a one-off prompt
• Progressive disclosure: starting simple and revealing more detail/options as needed
• Inspecting a skill: looking at what a skill contains and how it is described
• Using a skill in practice via a demo
• Sequencing: chaining skills together to complete a broader task
• Portability: using skills across different environments/tools

Links shared in the video

• Whiteboard: https://github.com/johnthebrit/RandomStuff/raw/master/Whiteboards/AISkills.png
• Sample/demo repo: https://github.com/johnthebrit/RandomStuff/tree/master/AISkillDemo
• Skills specification: https://agentskills.io/specification
• Using skills in GitHub Copilot (VS Code docs): https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/agent-skills