How to Create Custom AI Skills on Mac

You find yourself typing the same kind of prompt over and over: “review this code,” “summarize this document,” “draft a reply to this email.” Skills let you save these as reusable shortcuts that you can invoke in seconds.

What Are Skills?

Skills in Chapeta are pre-configured prompts with tool access. They combine a system prompt (instructions for the AI), tool permissions (which tools the skill can use), and optionally a specific model. When you invoke a skill, it is like having a specialized assistant ready for that exact task.

Chapeta ships with 15 built-in skills for common tasks. But the real power is creating your own skills tailored to your specific workflows.

Creating Your First Skill

1. Open Chapeta settings
2. Navigate to the Skills section
3. Click “Create Skill”
4. Fill in the skill configuration:

Name: A short label like “Code Review” or “Email Draft”

System Prompt: The instructions that define what the skill does. This is the most important part. Write it like you are giving instructions to a smart assistant who will do this task repeatedly.

Tools: Select which tools the skill can access (Bash, File Read, Web Search, etc.)

Model (optional): Lock the skill to a specific model, or leave it flexible

Example: Code Review Skill

Name: Code Review
System Prompt: You are a senior code reviewer. When given code or a file path:
1. Read the code
2. Identify bugs, security issues, and performance problems
3. Suggest specific improvements with code examples
4. Rate the overall code quality (1-5)
Focus on real issues, not style preferences.
Tools: File Read, Grep, Glob

Usage: Invoke the skill and say “Review ~/projects/myapp/src/auth.js”

Example: Meeting Notes Skill

Name: Meeting Notes
System Prompt: Read the provided text and extract:
1. Key decisions made
2. Action items with owners
3. Open questions
4. Next steps
Format as clean markdown with headers.
Tools: File Read, File Write, Clipboard Read

Usage: Copy your raw meeting notes, invoke the skill, and say “Process my clipboard”

Example: Daily Briefing Skill

Name: Daily Briefing
System Prompt: Create my morning briefing:
1. Search the web for top tech news
2. Add weather and one market or industry update
3. Save the summary as a markdown note
Present everything in a concise format.
Tools: Web Search, File Write

Usage: Invoke the skill and it runs the full sequence automatically.

Example: Git Summary Skill

Name: Git Summary
System Prompt: Analyze the recent git activity:
1. Run git log for the last 24 hours
2. Summarize what changed
3. Identify any large commits or potentially risky changes
Tools: Bash

Usage: Invoke in your project directory for a quick status check.

Skill Design Tips

Be specific in system prompts: “Analyze code for bugs” is vague. “Identify null pointer risks, unhandled errors, and SQL injection vectors” is specific and produces better results.

Limit tool access: Only enable tools the skill actually needs. A writing skill does not need Bash access. A code search skill does not need Web Search. Fewer tools means faster, more focused execution.

Use formatting instructions: Tell the AI how to structure output. “Use markdown headers,” “Present as a numbered list,” or “Keep the response under 200 words” all improve consistency.

Test with edge cases: Try your skill with unusual input to make sure the system prompt handles it well.

Built-In Skills to Start With

Before creating custom skills, explore the 15 built-in ones. They cover common tasks like:

• Code review and explanation
• Document summarization
• Email drafting
• Web research with citations
• Data extraction
• File organization

These can serve as templates for your custom skills. Examine their system prompts to understand effective skill design patterns.

Limitations

Skills are stored locally on your Mac. There is no skill marketplace or sharing system yet. Each skill runs within a single conversation context, so very complex multi-step workflows may need to be broken into separate skills. Skills also cannot run on a schedule; they require manual invocation.