Make documents and new skills with the built-in skills

What this does for you

Every organisation comes with a set of built-in skills. Four of them make files: Word documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets and PDF files. One of them, Create a skill, helps you write a skill of your own. Switch one on for a bot, ask for what you want, and the bot follows the skill.

The document skills build the file inside the bot's computer, check that it opens, and hand it to you in the chat as a file. You can open a preview of it without downloading it.

A skill can carry files beside its instructions: longer reference notes, templates and helper scripts. The bot reads a reference file only when it needs it. A helper script is only ever run inside the bot's computer, and only under the rules below.

Before you start

• You own the bot, or you are a manager of a Team Bot. Only they can switch a skill on for it.
• For the document skills, the bot has a computer. Without one, the bot says so and offers the text in the chat instead.
• Built-in skills are read-only. They are marked Managed by Botseon. New built-ins and updates arrive with each release, in every organisation, without anyone acting.

Steps

1. Open the bot's details and find Skills. On a phone-width screen, tap Details at the top of the bot's chat and open the Settings tab.
2. Switch the skill on. Each row shows the skill's name, what it is for, and a switch. Turn on the ones this bot should use, for example Presentations.
3. Ask for the file. For example: "Make a five-slide deck on our Q3 results from the attached sheet." The bot reads the skill, asks what it needs to know, and builds the file in its computer. For a deck it first shows sample slides so you can pick a style.
4. Open the file. The bot shares the finished file in the chat. Choose it to open the preview:
   • a Word document shows its text;
   • a presentation shows each slide's text under the slide's number;
   • a spreadsheet shows its rows;
   • a PDF the bot made shows the text in it. A PDF with no readable text, such as a scan, offers the download instead.
5. Use a skill by name. Type / in the bot's chat and pick a skill from the list. If it is off for this bot, the line under the chat says <name> is off for this bot. with Switch it on. If you cannot change the bot's skills, it says Its owner or a manager can switch it on.

Write a skill with Create a skill

1. Switch Create a skill on for the bot, then ask: "Help me make a skill for our weekly account review."
2. The bot asks one question at a time: what the task is, how people ask for it, what it needs first, what a good result looks like, and what needs your yes.
3. It drafts the skill and shows you the whole draft. Tell it what is wrong or missing until you agree.
4. It offers a dry run on a safe example, where nothing is sent, paid or deleted. A step it had to guess is a gap it fixes and shows you.
5. It asks whether to save. Saving waits for you on an approval card. If you decline, or never answer, nothing is saved. A later change to the skill asks you the same way.

A skill whose body does not follow the usual layout, or that has files beside it, cannot be saved by the bot. It gives you the complete text instead: paste it into the skill editor, or import the skill from an address.

A worked example

You switch on Spreadsheets for your finance bot and write: "Turn these three CSV exports into one budget workbook with a totals sheet."

The bot builds budget-2026.xlsx in its computer with real formulas, checks that it opens, and shares it in the chat. You choose the file and the preview shows the totals sheet's rows. You download it to open it in your spreadsheet app.

Next you switch on Create a skill and write: "Make this a skill." The bot asks how you usually ask for it, drafts monthly-budget-workbook, runs it once on last month's exports, and asks whether to save. You approve the card, and the skill appears in your library and in the / list.

What can go wrong

See also

• Save a process as a skill
• Teach a task
• Import a plugin for your team
• The bot's computer