Open Agent Skills standard

The Open Agent Skills standard is a shared set of rules that lets AI agent programs made by different companies read and write 'skill' files the same way. Just as multiple printer makers using the same paper size means any printer can take that paper, any agent that follows this standard can use a skill file no matter who made it.

A skill here means a bundle of files that packages up specific knowledge or a way of doing a task for an agent to use. For example, if you organize the contents of a thick technical manual by chapter into files built in this standard format, either GitHub Copilot or Claude Code can read the exact same files and pull out just the part it needs to answer with. There's no need to learn a different way of building skills for each program, or rebuild the same skill in a different format for each one.

With this standard, developers can build a skill once and reuse it across multiple agent hosts, and users get the benefit of being able to attach and use the same skill file no matter which agent they're using.

The article explains that "this skill runs on the Open Agent Skills standard jointly adopted by github-copilot, Amp, and Claude Code, so no matter which of the three hosts you use, they all read the same SKILL.md format." A common point of confusion is that this isn't a product from a single company, but a file format specification that multiple agent programs jointly follow.

If you're curious whether the AI agent you're using supports this standard, try asking in the chat window:

Can you read and run agent skill files in SKILL.md format?

If it's supported, it should explain the skill folder structure or how to load one.