Install and use skills

A skill is a set of instructions Dash follows when it recognizes a specific kind of request. Instead of figuring out the approach from scratch each time, Dash runs the playbook the skill defines. The result is more consistent and more tailored to your team’s way of working.

Skills handle things like drafting emails in a specific format, prepping for a meeting, filing a bug report, running a standup, or auditing a spreadsheet. Some come pre-installed. Others you install from a catalog. You can also write your own.

Using a skill

Most skills trigger automatically when you ask for something that matches. Dash recognizes the intent and runs the skill behind the scenes. You don’t need to do anything special.

Some skills also have a slash command as a direct trigger:

/draft a follow-up to the Acme call

/meeting-prep

/action-items

/help

The /help command lists every skill installed in your workspace and how to trigger each one.

Install a skill from the catalog

Dash has a catalog of pre-built skills for common tasks: call prep, deal briefs, weekly updates, sprint digests, and more. To browse what’s available:

@Dash is there a skill for weekly updates?

@Dash what skills do you have for sales?

@Dash find me a skill for QBR prep

Dash will search the catalog and show you what matches. If you want to install one, say yes and Dash adds it to your workspace. It takes effect on the next message.

You can also ask Dash:

@Dash what skills are installed?

to see everything currently active.

Write a custom skill

If no catalog skill fits, you can write your own. A custom skill has three parts:

• Name. A lowercase-hyphen identifier (like weekly-client-recap).
• Description. What the skill does and when Dash should use it. This is how Dash decides whether to trigger it, so be specific about the trigger phrases.
• Instructions. The step-by-step playbook Dash follows. Write these the way you’d brief a capable teammate: what to pull, where to post, what format to use, what to skip.

Create from Slack or Teams

@Dash create a skill called “weekly-client-recap” that every Friday pulls the week’s HubSpot calls and emails for each active client and posts a two-paragraph summary per client to #account-updates.

Dash will draft the skill, show you the instructions, and ask for confirmation before creating it.

Create from the web dashboard

Go to app.dashpup.ai, open the Skills page, and click Create skill. Fill in the name, description, and instructions, then save. The skill attaches to your workspace’s agent on the next conversation.

Edit or delete a skill

From the Skills page on the web dashboard, click a skill to edit its description or instructions. Changes take effect on the next conversation. To delete a skill, click the menu and select Delete.

From Slack or Teams, you can ask:

@Dash delete the weekly-client-recap skill

How skills interact with other features

• Scheduled tasks can use skills. If a task’s instructions match a skill trigger, Dash will follow the skill’s playbook.
• Approvals still apply. A skill can’t bypass the approval flow. If a skill’s instructions include a write action, Dash still asks before running it.
• Memory is available to skills. A skill can read what Dash has learned about your team, so you don’t need to repeat context in every skill’s instructions.

What’s next

• Schedule a task to run a skill on a recurring basis.
• Give Dash feedback to teach Dash definitions and preferences that skills can use.