# Skills

A skill teaches Athena how your practice works. Write a procedure, advice policy, writing style or required wording once, and Athena applies it whenever a task calls for it.

Skills keep Athena's work consistent across every adviser and every client, in chat, in meeting summaries, in advice documents and in the [tasks Athena drafts](https://docs.paradino.ai/athena-tasks).

[Open Skills in Paradino](https://app.paradino.ai/skills)

## Organisation and personal skills

Open **Skills** from the sidebar and select **New skill**:

* **Organisation skill.** Used by every adviser's Athena in your organisation. Only an owner or practice manager can create or change one.
* **Personal skill.** Used only in your own chats. Nobody else sees it, admins included.

If an organisation skill and a personal skill share a name, Athena uses the organisation skill. Owners can turn personal skills off for the whole practice with **Allow personal skills** in [Organisation settings](https://docs.paradino.ai/organisations#organisation).

## Types of skill

| Type              | What it holds                                            | Example                                                 |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Procedure**     | Steps Athena follows for a task, in order.               | How your practice prepares for an annual review.        |
| **Advice policy** | Rules about what the practice recommends and when.       | When the practice recommends consolidating super funds. |
| **Writing style** | Voice, structure and terminology for what Athena writes. | Plain English, dollar figures in bold, no jargon.       |
| **Compliance**    | Wording or disclosures that must appear.                 | The fee disclosure wording your licensee requires.      |

## Writing a skill

* **Name.** A short name your team will recognise, such as "Annual review prep".
* **When to use it.** Athena reads this to decide when the skill applies, so describe the situation, for example "Use when preparing for a client's annual review meeting." For a skill that should always apply, say so: "Every email or document written for a client."
* **Where Athena uses it.** Pick where the skill applies, or **All**:
  * **Workspace**: chats, emails and documents in the client Workspace.
  * **Meeting summaries**: writing and compliance skills apply when Athena writes or edits a summary. Procedures run in the summary chat, such as drafting a follow-up email.
  * **Advice documents**: Statements and Records of Advice. A policy shapes the strategies, and writing and compliance skills shape each section.
  * **Strategy papers**: strategy papers and advice requests.
* **Instructions.** Write them as you would brief a new team member. Plain text and lists both work.

Some fields are optional:

* **Document template.** A Workspace procedure can name a template that Athena drafts from when the skill is used.
* **Limit to sections.** Apply a writing or compliance skill only to the named template sections, such as "Fees, Our recommendations".
* **Reference documents.** Up to five documents from your practice knowledge base for Athena to read when it follows the skill, such as a fee table or a checklist.
* **Only for advisers using…** A connector the skill depends on. Advisers who haven't connected it won't get the skill.

> Advice documents and strategy papers follow their own steps, so procedures
> can't be used there. Every policy, writing and compliance skill set for them
> applies to every document.

## Try it, then publish

Open **Try it** on a skill to compare Athena's answers with and without the skill, on up to three prompts of your own or from your saved prompts.

Each change you save is kept in the skill's **Version history**, with an optional note under **What changed?**. A skill can be switched off without deleting it, and the Skills page shows how often each of your skills has been used in the last 30 days.

## Making a skill from a chat

You can also ask Athena in the Workspace to turn what you've just done into a skill, for example "make this a skill". Athena writes it and saves it as a **Draft**, with a link to review it on the Skills page. Athena never uses a draft. Check the wording, try it, then select **Publish**.

## How Athena uses skills

* **In chat**, Athena loads a skill when your request matches its **When to use it**, and shows that it used the skill. You can also pick one yourself from **Use a skill** in the message box's **+** menu.
* **In meeting summaries**, your writing style and compliance skills shape every summary.
* **In advice documents and strategy papers**, every skill set for them applies in full.
* **On Athena tasks**, a Workspace task can name a skill for Athena to follow. See [Athena Tasks](https://docs.paradino.ai/athena-tasks#using-skills-with-athena-tasks).

## Licensee skills

A licensee can share its skills with its member practices:

* **Required.** Every member practice uses the latest version and can't switch it off.
* **Optional.** A member practice's owner or practice manager chooses **Use this skill**. The practice stays on that version until they choose **Update to version N**, so a licensee change never alters a practice's advice without its say. **Stop using** removes it.

When a licensee skill, an organisation skill and a personal skill share a name, Athena uses the licensee skill first, then the organisation skill.

## Taking a tour

The Skills tour starts the first time you open Skills. To see it again, open **Guides & Tours** from the Paradino sidebar.