Overview
An ability might contain coding standards that the agent loads when it is about to write a particular kind of code. The model notices the situation, retrieves the ability, and applies the rules.
A procedure is intentionally started by the user. Examples include:
- Interview the user adversarially before planning.
- Turn a clarified idea into a product requirements document.
- Convert the requirements document into individual implementation issues.
- Review a change using a defined checklist.
Procedure skills can be chained by the human. The human decides when planning is sufficiently clear, when requirements should be formalized, and when implementation should begin.
The context problem appears when many skills advertise themselves to the model. If one hundred skills each leak a description into context, the agent must carry all one hundred descriptions even when only one is relevant. Some skill systems allow model invocation to be disabled. In that mode, the description is not exposed for automatic selection, and the user invokes the procedure directly.
Skills also make human procedures reusable. An engineer who has planned the same type of project many times can encode that planning approach once, distribute it to a team, and improve it collaboratively. This resembles extracting duplicated code into a shared function: repeated working knowledge becomes a maintained capability rather than an informal habit.