You need to get some skills
How plain text files are revolutionizing the way we interact with computers
Do you know what AI skills are?
If your answer to that question doesn’t involve the words “markdown files” then you need to read on. If you know where this is going, feel free to go grab a coffee and I’ll see you in the next edition.
tl;dr
Plain text markdown files called “skills” are revolutionizing the way humans interact with computers. Like SOPs for humans, skills help AI agents create high quality, consistent work product. Unlike SOPs, once you create a skill you immediately have access to essentially unlimited bandwidth to execute that skill. Curating a folder of these files on your computer is an essential task for high performers in 2026.
What is a markdown file?
Markdown is a way to style text (a “syntax”) that’s human-readable and easy to type on a keyboard. Markdown files are simply plain text computer files written in markdown syntax. Plain text files are nearly as old as computers themselves; they’re one of the few truly durable, cross-platform file formats in the history of digital technology.
I wrote this post using markdown, in an editor called iA Writer. They have a nice intro to markdown page where you can learn more.
What does markdown have to do with AI?
Markdown is how you teach an AI agent to do what you want, the way you want.
“Can’t I just prompt it?” you ask...
Yes, of course. But if you stop at prompts you’re missing out on what has become the most important new paradigm for human-computer interaction since the touchscreen.
Is that hyperbolic? Or an understatement? Time will tell.
What I know is that it’s transforming the way I work and the way my business works in real time. We’re building the plane as we fly.
Tell me more...
Ok, let’s zoom out a little.
First, let’s agree for purposes of this post that an “AI agent” is a magical robot that lives inside your computer. It’s wicked smart, works fast, can handle long tasks, and follow complicated instructions. It can’t interact with the physical world directly, but can do basically whatever you can do sitting at a computer.
In this context, “skills” are like an employee handbook or set of SOPs that you give to your AI agent teammate. The agent reads the relevant skills prior to completing a task and follows them when doing its work.
Anthropic, one of the leading AI R&D labs, created skills way back in the ancient days of late 2025. In December they made the skills specification an open standard, meaning anyone can see the framework and build tools that use it. This is important because it means that skill files (remember, these are simply plain text computer files) can be used across different platforms—Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity Computer, whatever.
I still don’t get it
Skills let you turn your general purpose AI subscription into a team of specialist agents that work exactly how you like. Autonomously, consistently, without getting tired or bored.
Suddenly, curating a personal folder of agent skill markdown files seems like table stakes for operating effectively in 2026. Garry Tan (Y Combinator President & CEO) certainly thinks so.
Yet the vast majority of people have no idea this even exists. Who can blame them? It’s only a few months old.
That’s how fast AI is moving.
One more anecdote to help explain
At some point in the journey of building my firm I realized I needed to document how I did stuff if I wanted other people to be able to help me effectively.
I wish I figured this out earlier, though I think I started earlier than most. Once I did something a few times I’d just write down the steps. Over the course of several years we built up a detailed how-to guide for the business.
That how-to guide was written for a human audience. Now, in 2026, we’re starting again. This time, we’re building the guide for agents.
As a first step I migrated all 300+ articles to a platform that can talk with AI agents via MCP (with Claude’s help, of course). Then I wrote a skill that tells our agents to reference the guide before answering certain questions.
Now we’re working on creating AI-native guides—skills—for relevant processes. This means writing the skills themselves, developing a framework for managing them and keeping them up to date, and teaching people how to use them.
But this time we don’t have years to build the system. The difference between a firm with solid SOPs and one without them was noticeable but not decisive in 2019. In 2026, firms effectively leveraging agentic AI will be able to create insurmountable advantages.
Put simply, figuring out agent skills has suddenly become the most important part of my job.
How should I start with AI agent skills?
Here’s what I’d do:
keep a notebook or sticky note nearby while you work for a few days
write down any tasks you do more than once
choose one
open Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to write a skill to do that task
install the skill
ask your AI agent to do the task (it should automatically use the new skill)
check the results and compare to what you’d expect
give whatever feedback you have directly to the AI agent and ask it to update the skill accordingly
repeat steps 6 through 8 until you’re happy with the results
If any of that doesn’t make sense (e.g. “install the skill”) then just ask Claude or ChatGPT to help.
A few more tips
I’ve had most success asking my AI agent to draft the skill initially, then editing it manually to dial in finishing touches.
VS Code is a great text editor for working with markdown files in this context. I mentioned iA Writer above; it’s a great app but for this particular use case I prefer VS Code.
The best time to start building your library of AI agent skills was in January. The second best time is today. Just start.