Using Skills
What skills are, how Matrix selects and applies them, how they shape conversations, and how to create your own.
A skill is a reusable package of procedural knowledge that tells Matrix how to handle a class of request. Think of it as a recipe: a structured set of instructions, tool configurations, and decision logic that Neo draws on when you ask for something specific.
You do not invoke skills directly. Neo selects the right skill based on what you ask and how you ask it.
What skills contain
Each skill is a structured document (a SKILL.mtx file) that defines:
- A trigger condition. What kind of request activates this skill.
- Required information. What the skill needs before it can proceed. If a required detail is missing, Neo asks you one focused question instead of guessing.
- Steps and tool usage. The sequence of actions Neo should take, including which tools to call and in what order.
- Constraints and guardrails. Budget limits, safety checks, and quality gates that the skill enforces.
- Output format. How the skill's results should be presented to you.
Skills are versioned and content-addressed. Each one is identified by a URI (matrix://skill/<slug>@<version>) and verified by a deterministic hash, so the same skill always produces the same behavior.
How Neo selects a skill
When you send a message, Neo evaluates it against the available skills. If a skill's trigger condition matches your request, Neo loads it and follows its instructions. The selection is automatic and based on your intent, not on keywords or syntax you need to memorize.
If no skill matches, Neo handles your request using its general capabilities: the full tool surface, its memory, and its own reasoning.
How skills shape the conversation
Skills make Neo a better collaborator in three specific ways:
Correcting the agent
Because skills produce typed, inspectable plans, you can correct Neo structurally. Adjust a constraint, change a target, raise a budget, or swap an approach, all without rewriting your whole request from scratch.
For example:
you: Write a deployment plan for the token indexer service.
Neo: Here's the plan. It targets the staging environment with a 10-minute rollback window.
you: Change the target to production and extend the rollback window to 30 minutes.
Neo: Updated. The plan now targets production with a 30-minute rollback window.
Neo applies the correction to the existing plan rather than starting over.
You can always ask Neo what it is about to do before it acts. For monetary or on-chain work, the rigorous rail always produces a reviewable plan regardless.
The skill corpus
Matrix ships with a curated corpus of skills covering common workflows. These are maintained and versioned alongside the platform, so they stay accurate as the tool surface evolves. Examples include:
- Writing plans. Structured deployment, migration, and rollout plans with typed steps and rollback strategies.
- Code review. Security scanning, quality gates, and automated fixes for code changes.
- Research and analysis. Deep research of repositories, web sources, and on-chain data with source attribution.
- Content creation. Documents, presentations, and structured output with consistent formatting.
The corpus grows over time. New skills are added as patterns emerge, and existing skills are updated when tools or workflows change.
Creating your own skills
You can author custom skills to codify your own workflows. A skill file follows a standard structure:
matrix://skill/my-workflow@1
§SKILL.id = my-workflow
§SKILL.version = 1
§SKILL.trigger = "when the user asks to..."
§SKILL.requires = [...]
§SKILL.steps = [...]
§SKILL.tools = [...]
§SKILL.output = "..."
Custom skills are loaded from your workspace and take precedence over the built-in corpus when their trigger conditions match. This lets you tailor Neo's behavior to your specific needs without modifying the platform.