Custom skills

A custom skill is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and a Markdown body. fal Agent follows the open format from agentskills.io, so skills written for other agents work here too.

Create a skill

Open Skills and click Install skill. Two tabs:

Create your own. Write the skill from scratch, or paste a SKILL.md you already have.
From GitHub. Paste a URL to a public repository, or to a folder in one, that contains a SKILL.md. For example https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/skill-name.

Changes apply as soon as you save. The agent uses the skill in new chats.

Format

---
name: brand-look
description: Apply the Acme brand look to every image. Use when the user mentions Acme, the brand kit, or a campaign asset.
---

## Palette
Teal #0F6E6E and rust #B4532A. Never pure black.

## Composition
Product centered, 15% margin, soft top light.

## Delivery
Always produce 1:1 and 4:5. Name runs `acme-<subject>`.

Field	Required	Rule
`name`	Yes	1 to 64 characters. Lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens. Must start and end with a letter or digit. This is how the agent refers to the skill
`description`	Yes	Up to 1,024 characters. Tells the agent when to reach for the skill. Write it as a trigger, not a summary
`license`, `compatibility`, `metadata`, `allowed-tools`	No	Optional fields from the open format

The body is free Markdown. Keep it focused. A body over about 5,000 tokens shows a warning, because a long skill crowds out the rest of the context.

References

A skill can ship supporting files in a references/ folder, such as example prompts or a style guide. The agent loads a reference file when the skill tells it to. Use the References field in the editor, or include the folder in the repository.

Text files only. Binary files are skipped.
Up to 1 MB of references and assets per skill. Files over the cap are skipped with a warning.
scripts/ folders are not supported and are rejected on import.
<script> tags in the body are rejected.

Edit a skill

Click a skill card to open the editor. The editor has fields for Name, Description, the SKILL.md body, and References. Saving is immediate. There is no draft or version history for custom skills.

Skills installed from GitHub

A skill installed from GitHub keeps a link to its repository. Click Update on its card to pull the latest version from the default branch. If you edit a GitHub skill in the editor, fal Agent asks Detach from GitHub? After you save, the skill is yours to maintain. Update is no longer available. Confirm with Save and detach.

Names that match a built-in skill

If your skill has the same name as a fal skill, the fal skill takes precedence until you disable it on the Skills page. Your skill is saved either way, and it is marked as shadowed.

Delete a skill

Open the skill and choose Delete. The agent no longer sees it. Chats that already activated it keep its text in their history.

Limits

Limit	Value
Skills per account	No limit
`description` length	1,024 characters
References and assets per skill	1 MB
GitHub sources	Public repositories only

GitHub imports use unauthenticated requests. If you see a rate-limit message, wait a few minutes and try again.

Setting Up

Model APIs

Serverless

Compute

Organizations

fal Agent

Custom skills

Create a skill

Format

References

Edit a skill

Skills installed from GitHub

Names that match a built-in skill

Delete a skill

Limits

​Create a skill

​Format

​References

​Edit a skill

​Skills installed from GitHub

​Names that match a built-in skill

​Delete a skill

​Limits

Create a skill

Format

References

Edit a skill

Skills installed from GitHub

Names that match a built-in skill

Delete a skill

Limits