Skills
Skills are user-created instruction sets that teach Dex how to handle specific tasks. They're context you define, persistent knowledge that shapes how Dex works for you.
What Are Skills
A skill is a markdown file with a name, description, and instructions. When you reference a skill or Dex encounters a task that matches its description, the skill's instructions are used as context, guiding how Dex approaches the task.
Skills live in your personal file system and can include supporting reference files in the same folder.
Creating Skills
Each skill is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:
- name: identifier for the skill.
- description: when/why to use it. This is how Dex decides relevance.
- body: full instructions.
Create skills by asking Dex ("create a skill for how I write weekly updates"), or edit them directly in the dashboard.
How Skills Are Used
When you reference a skill in a conversation or Dex matches one by description, the skill's instructions are added to the prompt as additional context, alongside page content, memories, and other context sources. The AI follows the instructions as part of its response generation.
Procedures
Procedures are the auto-learned counterpart to skills. When Dex's pipeline detects you've repeated a workflow 2+ times, it creates a procedural memory documenting the steps, linked back to the chats that demonstrated the pattern.
Unlike skills, procedures aren't manually authored. They emerge from your behavior and are given to the chat while you converse with Dex, letting Dex follow your established workflows without explicit instructions.