Turn a saved prompt into a skill

Start with the prompt you already use. Give it a clear name and description, then add the required skill fields.

Keep the context that matters

Explain the required inputs, expected output and limits. Add reference files when their contents belong in the AI request — the current app includes every file under a skill’s reference/ folder with the instructions: the loader picks up each one, and the gateway’s prompt assembler (gateway/app/skills/assembler.py) appends it verbatim to the skill’s prompt under a ## Reference: <path> heading, whether or not the body mentions it. Budget prompt size and confidentiality on that basis; reference files are not lazily loaded (Skill-Authoring Guide).

Try it in the app

Check that the skill file is accepted, then run examples of the task. Getting the file format right is the first step; testing tells you whether the instructions work.

Map the parts you already have

Put the prompt’s steps into SKILL.md, then work through the rest field by field below: the short “when I use this” note becomes description, ordinary requests become lq_ai.trigger_examples, essential facts become lq_ai.inputs.required, and genuinely optional context becomes lq_ai.inputs.optional. Give it a stable name and a readable title. Specify the jurisdiction, the expected output, and a clear “when not to use this” section.

Field by field, against the format in the Skill-Authoring Guide:

What you already have → What it becomes in SKILL.md

The prompt text itself

The body of SKILL.md — specifically the “Workflow” section: the step-by-step instructions the model follows.

A one-line note on when you use this prompt

description in frontmatter — one sentence, specific enough that it wouldn’t also describe a different prompt you have.

The phrases you’d actually type to reach for it

lq_ai.trigger_examples — at least three, in your own words.

Any “first tell me X” step at the top of the prompt

lq_ai.inputs.required — the document or fact the workflow can’t run without.

Any optional context you sometimes add (“assume the recipient perspective,” “use the GDPR checklist”)

lq_ai.inputs.optional — only where supplying it changes the substance of the output, not only its formatting.

Whatever you called it in your own filesystem or notes app

name (kebab-case) and lq_ai.title (the display name).

A stated legal system or regulatory regime the prompt assumes

lq_ai.jurisdiction — a free-form field; conventional values are us, eu, regime-aware, global/agnostic, or other (spelled out in the skill body).

The shape you expect back — a memo, a checklist, a table

output_format — prefer the conventional report, table, issues_list or redline; the loader accepts any string and the M1 starter skills use a wider range (NDA Review ships markdown), but only table changes how the application renders the result.

The line where you’d stop and escalate to a colleague instead of trusting the output

“What this skill does not do” — an explicit section, not an implied boundary.

Most prompt files don’t have a stated jurisdiction or an explicit “when this does NOT apply” section yet — they’re not hard to add once you’ve named them, and they’re the difference between a prompt that works for you because you know its limits by memory, and a skill someone else can pick up and trust on the same terms.

Be precise about output formats

Describe the result you want in output_format, but do not assume the label creates an export or editor feature. Setting output_format: table selects the Tabular Review workflow; labels such as redline describe a convention (Word tracked-changes-style output) but do not on their own produce Word tracked changes — the frontmatter parser treats the field as a free-form string, and only table is load-bearing (api/app/skills/schema.py).

If your prompt has real legal substance in it — review criteria, severity judgments, recommended language — treat it as skill content from the start: the same conservative-posture conventions and the same attestation expectation apply whether you wrote it from scratch or promoted it from a prompt file you’d been using for months. Add a worked example and the same legal-content review you would require for a newly written skill.

For the full walkthrough of turning that promoted prompt into a merged skill, see Author your first skill.

Next

• Write your first skill
• What is a skill?
• What counts as a reviewed skill?