# Skills Repeatable jobs built into a coach so the output holds the same standard every time. What they are for, the one design constraint, and why one might not fire. Source: https://replicatelabs.ai/docs/coaching/skills Last updated: 2026-09-03 --- A skill is a job the coach knows how to do properly, built once and made available across an account. ## The problem they solve Ask ten reps for a deal review and you get ten formats and eight standards. Ask the same coach ten times through a well-built skill and you get one structure, working your account's methodology and your qualification bar, every time. Skills are how an organisation encodes "this is how we do this here" into something reps actually use, instead of a template in a shared drive that nobody opens. ## Running one You invoke a skill either through a [coach button](/docs/coaching/coach-buttons) or by asking for it in the conversation by name. A button pre-fills the composer to invoke it rather than sending straight away, which is your chance to add the specifics before it runs. Give it everything it needs in that first message. Which brings us to the constraint.
A skill runs in a single pass

A skill takes what it has, does the work, and returns the output. It does not run a multi-turn interview and then produce something at the end. If you invoke one with half the inputs, it will produce a competent answer to a question you did not mean to ask.

Practically: use a skill for the job with a known shape, and have a normal conversation for the thinking. If you find yourself wanting to go back and forth inside a skill, you wanted a conversation.

## What they are typically used for
Deal reviewAn opportunity worked against the account's qualification standard, in a fixed structure a manager can read quickly.
Call preparationA brief for a named upcoming conversation: objectives, questions, likely objections.
Discovery questionsA question set for a specific persona and stage, drawn from the methodology.
Competitive positioningHow to frame against a named competitor, using what the account knows rather than generic battlecards.
Business caseA first draft of the internal case your champion has to make without you in the room.
Building a roleplayTurning a real situation into a practice scenario. See Building roleplays.
Common skills. The exact set is per account, and the names will be your organisation's.
## When a skill does not fire A skill has to be loaded for your user before it will run. If it is not, a button that invokes it does nothing at all when clicked, with no error message. This is not something a rep can fix, and it is not a sign the skill is broken for everyone. Report it to your administrator with the button name and the coach you were on. See [Troubleshooting](/docs/reference/troubleshooting). ## Getting one built Skills are built per account against that organisation's methodology and standards, so they are commissioned rather than self-served. The trigger is simple: if your team does the same job by hand every week, and the quality varies by who did it, that is a skill.