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Grok Bot Skills: Build, Audit And Back Up A Skill Library In Your Agent OS

By Julian Goldie · 3 November 2026 · agentos.guide

Grok Bot skills are the reusable playbooks your Bots follow, and your Agent OS is the right place to organise, test and back them up.

Below is a quick start, five copy-paste prompts, and a weekly workflow, all based on the skills and routines docs and the Grok Bot changelog.

Need help wiring it into your own stack? Book a free SEO strategy session with my team.

Quick start: your first skill in four moves

1. Finish one real task with a Bot until the output is right.
2. Ask the Bot to save that method as a named skill.
3. Open Connect apps, select the connected count, and enable the skill under Private skills for each Bot that needs it.
4. Call it by name, adding apps with @.

That's it for the basics.

A skill, in the docs' words, is a reusable set of instructions for how to do a task, while a routine says when a Bot runs it.

Skills are available across your Bots, though each Bot still needs the app or login a skill relies on.

Keep that split in your Agent OS too: one board for skills, one for routines.

The prompts below do the organising work your Agent OS is good at.

Prompt 1: save the last task as a six-part skill

Paste this into the Bot chat straight after a task you're happy with.

Save the method we just used as a skill called "[Skill name]".
Structure it in six sections:
1. Use it when: [situation]
2. Needs: [apps, files, logins]
3. Steps: the exact order we followed
4. Check: how you confirm the result is correct
5. Return: [format, e.g. table + summary]
6. Ask me first before: sending, buying, deleting or publishing
Add a one-line description so a teammate's Bot knows when it applies.

The six sections mirror the official checklist for a useful skill.

The description line is there because publishing later requires one.

Prompt 2: audit your Private skills library

Private skills are one library across all your Bots, but each Bot needs the skill switched on.

This prompt finds the gaps.

List every skill you can see in my Private skills library.
For each one, tell me: its name, its description, whether it is labelled
"From template", and which apps or logins it needs.
Then tell me which of my other Bots should have it enabled, and why.
Don't change anything yet; give me the list as a table.

Enable the missing ones yourself in Connect apps once you've read the table.

Doing the switching by hand keeps you in charge of which Bot can do what.

A sales Bot rarely needs your invoicing skill, and leaving it off keeps that Bot focused.

Run the audit again whenever you add a Bot, so the new one starts with the right set.

🔥 Want the full Agent OS skill library?

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→ Join the AI Profit Boardroom

Prompt 3: turn a "From template" skill into your own

Since v0.77.0 (26 Oct), template skills show under Private skills with a From template label.

The docs say skills that came with a template can't be published, so make your own version.

Take the "[template skill name]" skill (labelled From template) and write a
new skill called "[My skill name]" based on it.
Keep the steps that fit my business, remove anything generic, and add:
- my approval rule: [rule]
- my output format: [format]
Give it a clear description. Show me the draft before you save it.

Read the draft line by line before saving.

Template skills are written for everyone, so the generic steps are usually the ones to cut.

Prompt 4: write a publish-ready team description

On a team, you publish a skill from Connect apps by opening it and choosing Publish.

The description decides when teammates' Bots reach for it, so it's worth a dedicated prompt.

Rewrite the description of my "[Skill name]" skill for my team.
In two sentences, say exactly when to use it and when NOT to use it.
Name the apps it needs and the one action that always waits for approval.
Keep it under 40 words.

After publishing, the menu on Published offers Sync, Copy link and Unpublish.

Press Sync after every edit, or your team keeps running the old version.

Prompt 5: back up your skills into Hermes

Grok Bot keeps skills in its cloud account with no export button, so the Hermes import guide has each Bot export itself.

Run hermes import-agent grok-bot and Hermes prints a message to paste into the Bot.

hermes import-agent grok-bot
# paste the printed message into the Bot chat
# the Bot writes grok-bot-export.json without changing anything
hermes import-agent grok-bot --source ~/Downloads/grok-bot-export.json

Imported skills land in skills/grok-bot-imports/ in your Hermes home, and scheduled routines become paused cron jobs.

Repeat it per Bot, into the profile that should own that Bot's work.

Nothing in Grok Bot changes during the export, so you can run it as often as you like.

Name clashes are skipped by default, and --overwrite replaces them.

The weekly skill workflow

1. Monday: run Prompt 2 and fix any Bot missing a skill.
2. During the week: after any task done twice, run Prompt 1.
3. Before sharing: test the skill on a safe example and run Prompt 4.
4. Friday: publish or Sync, then run Prompt 5 to refresh your Hermes copy.

Teach a task can replace Prompt 1 where it's available: record up to ten minutes of the browser job and the Bot drafts the skill.

It's rolling out gradually, and the draft still needs your rules added.

Where skills sit next to plugins and routines

Plugins bring packaged skills; since v0.71.2 (14 Oct) a Bot can use up to 200 from installed plugins, and since v0.75.8 (24 Oct) it can use a new plugin's skills mid-task.

If you're choosing plugins, see our Grok Bot plugins guide.

Routines decide when a skill runs; the FAQ says to prove the skill on a one-time task first.

On a shared Team Bot, the owner and Managers set skills that work in every teammate's chat, per the shared Bots docs.

Since v0.77.0, Team Bots also follow the skill guide of a connector a teammate has allowed.

Add someone as Manager only if they should edit the Bot's instructions, skills, memory and apps; everyone else is a Collaborator.

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Book a free SEO strategy session and my team will pick the three workflows in your business that suit a skill best.

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Test every skill before it joins the library

A test run isn't a simulation; it can visit websites, change files and call your connected tools.

Feed the new skill a harmless input first, such as an old report or a test inbox.

Then check five things: it used current inputs, the output matches your format, each action has a trail, it paused at the approval point, and it reported anything missing.

Fail any of those and the skill goes back through Prompt 1 with the fix added.

Only skills that pass twice get published or attached to a routine.

When a skill won't load or a Bot can't see it

Most problems are a switch, not a fault.

If a Bot says it can't find a skill, it isn't enabled for that Bot under Private skills.

If skills fail to load, the app shows the error with Try again since v0.70.2, so press that before rebuilding anything.

Typing / no longer opens a skills menu since v0.68.1, so call the skill by name instead.

If you merged two Cursor accounts, matching skills from the other account replace the primary's, and skills only one side has are kept.

Guardrails to keep in every skill

• Put sending, buying, deleting and publishing behind approval.
• Keep secrets off screen when you teach a task; use the secure handoff for logins.
• Strip API keys and customer data before sharing a Bot as a public template, as its skills are visible to anyone with the link.
• Test runs do real work, so use safe inputs.

For ready-made skills and live help adapting them, join the AI Profit Boardroom.

Or grab a free strategy call and we'll build your first one together.

FAQ

How do I enable a skill on another Bot?

Open Connect apps, select the connected count next to the title, and switch the skill on for that Bot under Private skills.

Can I back up my Grok Bot skills?

Yes, with Hermes. Run hermes import-agent grok-bot, paste the printed message into each Bot, then import the grok-bot-export.json file it writes.

What does the From template label mean?

Since v0.77.0, skills that came with a Bot's template are labelled From template under Private skills. They can't be published, so write your own version to share.

Do I need a description on every skill?

Only to publish to a team, but it is worth writing anyway because teammates' Bots use it to decide when the skill applies.

Final word on Grok Bot Skills

Run Prompt 1 after your next good task, then Prompt 2 on Monday, and your library builds itself. For the full Agent OS with skills ready to load, join the AI Profit Boardroom and organise your Grok Bot skills today.

Related guides on agentos.guide

→ Grok Bot Plugins In Your Agent OS: Quick Start, 5 Copy-Paste Prompts And A Weekly Workflow

→ Grok Bot Templates: Prep, Publish And Vet Shared Bots In Your Agent OS With 5 Copy-Paste Prompts

→ Grok Bot Routines: How To Plan, Test And Review Every Routine In Your Agent OS, With Five Copy-Paste Prompts

→ Grok Bot Connectors: Connect, Track And Reconnect Every App In Your Agent OS

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