Procedural Knowledge¶
Summary¶
Knowledge of how to do things — step-by-step processes, workflows, best practices — as opposed to declarative knowledge (knowing that something is true). Agent Skills package procedural knowledge for AI agents.
In Agent Skills¶
Skills are organized folders that teach agents how to do specific tasks: - "When someone asks you to write a blog post, follow these steps..." - "Here's how we do things. Here are the steps. Here's what to watch out for." - Scripts that the agent can execute as tools
Types of Procedural Knowledge in Skills¶
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Workflow | Spec → plan → build → review → test pipeline |
| Best practice | Code style guidelines, naming conventions |
| Domain expertise | Tax code rules, legal contract review steps |
| Tool usage | How to use a specific API or library |
Why It Matters¶
Agents are brilliant generalists but lack procedural knowledge — the domain expertise that comes from repeated practice. Skills fill this gap by packaging human expertise in a format agents can load on demand.