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Choose where the skill lives. A local workspace skill is free and requires no OpenWork Cloud sign-in. When you are signed in and ask OpenWork to create a skill “for me,” it creates a private Cloud plugin that only you can access. Owners and admins can publish managed team skills through Collections.
Do the work once in chat before you turn it into instructions.

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Turn a useful chat into a personal Cloud skill

  1. Finish the task in chat and keep the thread open.
  2. Ask in plain English: Turn what we just did into a reusable skill for me.
  3. OpenWork saves the skill in your OpenWork Cloud organization as a private plugin. You receive access automatically; it is not written into your workspace or shared with anyone else.
  4. Give the skill a clear name if OpenWork asks, then let it confirm what it saved. In the desktop app you get a rich confirmation card with the skill name and a link to it in your Library.
  5. Use it later by name in chat, or describe the same kind of task and let OpenWork trigger it when it matches.
Chat with the skill-created confirmation card showing the new skill, its plugin, and an Open in Library link

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Other ways to create a skill

Every path creates the same thing: a skill inside a plugin in your OpenWork Cloud organization.
  • Desktop, from the Library: open Settings > Library, filter to Skills, and click Add skill. This requires being signed in to OpenWork Cloud; the skill is created as a private plugin in your organization.
Library filtered to Skills with the Add skill button
Create a skill modal with name, description, skill body, and who can use it
  • Cloud dashboard: organization admins create and edit skills inside a plugin from Plugin Directory — open a plugin and add a skill to it.
Cloud dashboard plugin page with its skills and the Add skill button
Cloud dashboard skill editor reached from a plugin's Add skill button
  • From chat, as described above.

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Change or share it only when you choose

  1. To refine it, ask for the change in chat, such as Make the skill ask before sending email.
  2. To share it with teammates, add its plugin to a Collection and grant that Collection by following Publish and copy a skill.
Creating the skill does not publish it. Sharing is a separate step you choose.

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Keep a skill local to one workspace

A local skill is a SKILL.md file inside your workspace (for example .opencode/skills/<name>/SKILL.md). If you explicitly ask for a local skill in chat, OpenWork creates only that file and does not make a Cloud copy. Local skills need no Cloud account and remain available in Settings > Library, but OpenWork Cloud cannot assign or update them for your team.