# Skills and agent setup

> Give every agent in a project the same know-how: add skills from the catalog, and bring the instructions and skills you already use on your computer.

Every agent of a project reads three things before it works: your repository's own instructions, what you set up for this project, and your personal defaults. The nearer one wins.

## Add a skill

A skill is a packaged way of doing one kind of task well - writing tests, reviewing a design, researching a market.

1. Open **Agent factory**, then **Skills**.
2. Under **Recommended**, press **Add** on a set that fits, or type in **Search** under **Discover** and press **Install** on a skill. When a skill does the same job as one the project already has, its row says so and the button asks again as **Install anyway**.
3. Every agent in the project uses it from the next message. **Remove** under **Installed** takes it away again.

![Agent factory, Skills.](https://iterada.com/docs/shots/skills.png)

Iterada also brings skills of its own, folded under **Installed**. Open the fold and turn one off with **Remove**; **Restore** brings it back, and **Restore every built-in skill** brings back all you turned off.

## Limit the skills one agent uses

By default every agent uses every installed skill. To keep one agent to some of them:

1. Open **Agent factory**, then **Agents**, and press **Model & skills** on the agent's row.
2. Under **Skill selection**, choose **Choose skills** and tick the skills it may use. **All installed** puts it back to everything.
3. Press **Save**. A workflow step can still choose its own skills.

## Bring your own setup

If you already work with a coding agent on your computer, bring its instructions and skills along instead of writing them again.

1. Open **Agent factory**, then **Agents**, and find **Agent files**.
2. Under **Your defaults**, press **Import** to bring the setup you want in every project; under **Only this project**, for this one alone.
3. Press **Choose a folder** and pick the folder your agent keeps its setup in - the dialog names it for your computer. Check the list, then press **Import selected files**.

Anything that looks like a password or a key is removed before it leaves your browser. Your defaults can also be imported, shown and removed on your Account page, under **Agent setup**.

## Your repository's own setup

Instructions and skills committed to your repository are read on every run, with nothing to import. Iterada makes them readable by every agent, so a skill written for one agent works for the others too.