Create & manage skills

Skills are reusable instructions that teach Notion AI how to complete a specific type of work. They’re written and maintained as Notion pages. You can mark any page as a skill and run it with Notion Agent whenever you need it.

• Use skills for repeatable tasks like "Proofread," "Explain," or "Reformat."

• Skills are pages, so you can organize and share them like any other page in Notion.

• Notion Agent can also use your skills on its own when they're relevant to what you ask, so you don't always have to run them yourself.

• Find and manage all your skills in the Skills tab of your Library.

• You can also download a skill to a local agent, so the same steps work outside Notion.

When you select text on a page, the text selection menu includes built-in skills like Improve Writing, Proofread, Explain, and Reformat. Any skill you or your team has created can be added to the menu, replacing or supplementing the defaults.

Skills are one of a few ways to work with AI in Notion. Here is how each one compares:

Use a skill when your task is:

• Repeatable: You or your team does this often.

• Contextual: It should run on a specific selection or page right now.

• Consistent: You want the same structure or quality every time.

A simple rule of thumb is that if you’d copy and paste the same prompt twice, it's a good candidate for a skill.

• Executive-ready rewrites (tone, length, format).

• Turning meeting notes into action items or a recap email.

• Converting drafts into a specific template (FAQ, PRD summary, spec skeleton).

• Standardizing formatting across documents (bullets, headings, style).

1. Go to Library in your sidebar and open the Skills tab.

2. Select + Add a skill.

3. Create a new skill page.

From any page, select ••• at the top, then select Use as a skill.

You can also ask Notion Agent to mark a page as a skill for you. Skill pages show a banner at the top, so you can tell them apart from regular pages.

You can run skills automatically or from the editor by highlighting text, hovering over a block, or typing / next to content.

In chat with Notion Agent, type / to see a menu of all the skills you've added, or type / followed by the skill's name to run one directly.

Notion Agent can use your skills without you calling them by name. Describe what you need, and if a skill is a good fit, Notion Agent can use it automatically. Here's how it works:

• Automatic use is on by default, so Notion Agent can start using a skill as soon as it's ready.

  • If you want a skill to only run when you ask for it, turn off the toggle next to Use automatically, either in the Skills tab of your Library or on the skill page.

• A skill needs a description to run automatically, and only skills that live in a skills database have one. If your skill is a standalone page, add it to a skills database first. Learn more about skills databases below.

• Notion Agent reads the description to decide whether the skill is a good match, so keep it clear and specific.

Select a body of text, then choose a skill from the text selection menu.

Only skills with the Add to text editor menu option turned on appear in these menus. You can manage this from the Skills tab in your Library. Your custom skills appear first, followed by the built-in defaults: Improve Writing, Proofread, Explain, and Reformat.

In the slash menu:

• Type /skill next to content to browse your available skills. The slash menu only shows skills when there's content on the line, because a skill needs something to run on.

• In chat with Notion Agent, you can also type / followed by the skill's name to go straight to a specific skill. This shortcut doesn't work on a page unless there's content next to it.

In the block menu:

• Select the ⁚⁚ icon that appears when you hover over a block to open the block menu.

• Select Skills.

• Choose a skill to run it on that block.

Skills are available on text, headings (H1, H2, H3), quote, callout, bulleted list, numbered list, to-do, toggle, image, and synced blocks. Skills won't appear on empty blocks or block types not in this list. If you apply a skill to a block that has content nested inside it, the skill includes that nested content too.

A skills database gives your team one place to create and manage skills together. Every page you create in it becomes a skill automatically, and each skill gets a description property. Notion Agent reads that description to decide when to use the skill on its own.

The database is where you manage skills. Your Library is where you find them.

In a skills database, you keep skills organized in one place, write each description, attach the files a skill needs, choose who can see or edit each skill, and keep quality up as the work changes. Page history, sharing settings, and database properties make it harder to change a skill by accident, and they make it easier to see which skills your team relies on most.

Your Library pulls in the skills from the databases and pages shared with you, so people can find a skill and start using it.

A skills database works like any other Notion database, with a couple of properties already set up for you:

• Description says what the skill does and when to use it. Notion Agent reads it to decide when the skill fits.

• Files holds supporting material, like examples, reference docs, images, data files, or scripts.

You can add any other properties your team cares about, like Owner to show who keeps a skill current, or Status to show which skills are ready to use.

• Create a new page, select Database, then choose Skills (or Database - Inline → Skills).

• Or select + next to a teamspace name and choose the same option.

Creating it in a teamspace means your team can reach it right away, so you don't have to move it or change access later.

1. Open the database and select ••• → More settings.

2. Select Turn into Skills database.

This adds Description, Files, and Tags properties to the database. From then on, every page created in it becomes a skill. This works best when the pages in the database already explain how a task should be done, like a set of playbooks or how-tos.

If you already have a page that explains how to do a repeatable task, move it into a skills database. The page becomes a skill and picks up the skill properties, including Description.

1. Open the page and select ••• → Move to.

2. Choose your skills database.

3. Add a clear Description so Notion Agent knows when to use it.

Edit a skill

You can edit a skill from the text selection menu or the block menu.

To edit a skill's content from the text selection menu, hover over its name and select the pencil icon. You can also open a skill's page from its skills database to edit it.

Manage skills from your Library

1. Go to Library in your sidebar, and open the Skills tab.

2. From there, you can view your existing skills, add new skills, and open any skill page to edit it.

3. To choose which skills appear in the text editor, the slash menu, and the block menu, select

   Add to text editor menu or Remove from text editor menu next to each skill page.

Manage skills from your text editor

Highlight any text, then select Manage Skills next to your skills in the menu.

• The Library's Discover tab shows skill pages that others have shared with you, so you can browse what your team has built.

• Found one you want? Select Enable for me to add it to your own skills. You'll see a confirmation as soon as it's added.

Because skills are pages, sharing works the same way it does for any other page in Notion.

• If you share a skill with someone, they can run that skill once they have access to the skill page.

• If they can edit the skill page, their edits will change the skill.

• View skills you've created, skills shared with you, and skills in your workspace by going to Library in your sidebar and opening the Skills tab.

• Shared skill pages behave like regular pages, so they also show up under Shared in your Library.

• Share one skill page when only some people need that one workflow. Share the whole skills database when your team should get every skill in it.

• Anyone with edit access can change a shared skill for everyone who uses it, so pick editors with that in mind. Page history shows what changed if you need to go back.

There are a few ways to remove a skill, depending on what you want:

• Delete the skill completely: A skill is just a page, so you can move it to trash like any other page. This works for skill pages inside a skills database too. Keep in mind that deleting the page removes the skill for everyone who uses it.

• Remove a skill you added: If you added a skill from the Discover tab and don't want it anymore, you can toggle it off in the Skills tab of your Library. This only removes the skill for your Agent. It stays available for everyone else.

• Turn a skill page back into a regular page: Select ••• at the top of the page → Use with AI, then uncheck Use as AI skill. The page and its content stay right where they are. It just stops being a skill.

Keep the skill page in Notion and send a copy to a local agent like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, or Grok. The instructions, references, and formats come with it.

To download a skill to your local agent:

1. Open the skill page in Notion.

2. Select ••• at the top of the page.

3. Select Download to local agents.

4. Choose where to send the skill.

Notion saves the skill as a SKILL.md file, along with any files attached to the skill that are approved to share. Your local agent reads that file the same way it reads its own instructions, so you get the same results you get in Notion. When a skill changes in Notion, the downloaded skill is badged so you know to download the latest version to your local environment.

• Use your Notion Agent to help brainstorm or write skills.

• Start with a common workflow you do weekly, like rewriting, recapping, summarizing, or formatting.

• Write your skill like a strong prompt, including the goal, inputs, constraints, and desired output format.

• Make output requirements explicit, like "return 5 bullets" or "include risks and next steps."

• Keep the skill page short and link to longer references when needed.

• Iterate over time by updating the skill page as you learn what works best.

• Give each skill a clear description of what it does and when to use it. This helps Notion Agent pick the right skill on its own.

• If your team also works in local agents, keep the skill page in Notion up to date and download it again after you make changes.

• Give each shared skill an owner, so one person keeps it current as your team's process changes.