Using Civic Skills

Reusable AI capabilities that layer instructions on top of your toolkit

A Skill is a set of instructions, business context, terminology, and workflows that the AI loads on top of its current toolkit. Skills teach the agent how to use tools — not which tools are available.

Skills vs Toolkits

Skills and Toolkits work together but serve different purposes:

	Toolkit	Skill
What it is	A set of tools (MCP servers)	A set of instructions and business context
How it works	Switch to it	Load on top of current toolkit
Purpose	Defines what tools are available	Defines how to use them
Replaces current context?	Yes	No — layers on top
Multiple active at once?	No	Yes
Example	”Support” toolkit with Gmail + Slack	”Escalation Procedures” skill

A toolkit switch replaces the entire tool context. Loading a skill adds domain knowledge and workflow instructions without removing any tools.

Toolkits

How to create and manage toolkits

Use Cases

PR Reviewer — Load your code review standards, naming conventions, and style guide. The agent knows how you review PRs before it looks at a single diff.

Pipeline Summary — Load your Salesforce stage definitions, deal naming conventions, and reporting format. The agent produces consistent summaries without re-explanation each session.

Support Agent — Load your escalation policies, SLA thresholds, and tone guidelines. The agent handles routine cases and escalates correctly without needing to re-read the playbook each time.

Onboarding Companion — Load your new hire checklist, internal tool guides, and team contacts. The agent walks new team members through setup consistently.

How to Create a Skill

1. Log in to app.civic.com
2. Click Create Profile (or “Create Toolkit”)
3. Set the profile type to SKILL
4. Give it an alias (e.g. pr-reviewer, escalation-procedures)
5. Add your instructions in the content field

Writing effective skill instructions:

• Write in second person: “You are a code reviewer who follows these standards…”
• Include examples of correct and incorrect behavior
• Be specific about terminology unique to your business
• Keep each skill focused on one domain — multiple skills can be loaded simultaneously

How to Load a Skill

Via URL Parameter

Include the skills parameter when connecting your agent:

https://app.civic.com/hub/mcp?profile=support&skills=escalation,canned-responses

Multiple skills are comma-separated. They load in the order specified.

Via Configurator Agent in Civic Chat

"Load the escalation-procedures skill for this session"

"Add the pr-reviewer skill to the current context"

Via the load-skill Tool

If your agent has access to the load-skill tool, it can be instructed to load skills dynamically:

"Use the load-skill tool to load the pipeline-summary skill"

Multiple Active Skills

Skills layer — multiple skills can be active simultaneously without conflict. Each adds its instructions to the agent’s context.

If instructions from two skills conflict, the later-loaded skill typically takes precedence, but it is better practice to keep skills non-overlapping.

Session Scope

Skills persist for the duration of the session. They are not automatically persisted to the toolkit configuration unless you explicitly save them there.

Best Practices

• One domain per skill — A skill that covers code review AND customer support AND data analysis is too broad. Split it.
• Second person voice — “You are…” establishes persona clearly and consistently.
• Include examples — “When a user asks about X, respond with Y” is more effective than abstract principles.
• Avoid instructions that duplicate guardrails — Guardrails are enforced at the protocol level and cannot be overridden. Skill instructions are guidelines that the LLM follows. Don’t rely on skill instructions for security-critical constraints.

Toolkits

The tool layer that Skills build on top of

Guardrails

Protocol-level constraints that complement Skill instructions

Agent Deployment

Using skills and toolkits in production agent deployments