{"node":{"id":"32ead000-931d-4234-bfe0-295dae630b79","handle":"32ea","type":"note","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","intent":"truth","title":"Skills: context you invoke","aiSummary":"A skill is context loaded when needed, not on every start. Repeating yourself is the signal to look, but only workflows worth capturing once become skills. The AI writes it; you don't need to read it. The loop is use, then improve by pointing at what came out wrong. Reader's AI names a workflow the person has walked more than once and offers to write it.","content":"**What to know:** a skill is a piece of context you load into the conversation when you need it, not on every start. Repeating yourself is the signal to look. Not everything you repeat should become one. The skill is the workflow that makes sense to capture once and reuse, where doing that has real value to you.\n\n**You don't write it.** Ask the AI: \"turn what we just did into a skill.\" It writes the file, in the right place, in the right shape. You don't even need to read it.\n\n**Use it, then improve it.** That's the whole loop. Run the skill. Look at the result. If the result is off, say what was wrong and have the AI fix the skill. Run it again. A skill gets good by being used, not by being written carefully the first time.\n\n**Author's practice:** spot the workflows that would benefit from being captured once. Have the AI write the first version from the conversation. Improve it by using it and pointing at what came out wrong.\n\n**Reveal on the spot:** say which skills exist here. Look back at this conversation and anything you remember from before: is there a workflow the person has walked through more than once that would be worth capturing? Name it, and offer to write it now.\n\n**Unlocks:** the person never repeating a workflow they care about, and a set of tools that gets better every time it's used.","capturedAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:15.584Z","createdAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:15.585Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-15T05:13:35.152Z","spanId":null,"contributor":null,"audiences":[{"kind":"public","createdAt":"2026-09-08T12:45:15.585Z"}],"fingerprint":"80a5e3c63ae8ab94f2e118c22e1299a5eeb807f28c8286c609f9fbae67ad2636","revisionNo":"6","structureHash":"5c5e2ed719444b3b919712627859a08d8498f3b19c963d26365479c40326c9af","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/32ead000-931d-4234-bfe0-295dae630b79"},"links":[{"direction":"in","verb":"references","reason":"if the person needs it: skills. In a chat app, say what they would have","hash":"d84d7f51dcaf51339883fc8fa680ad0789d3704b289fdc8304912397f93d05e8","node":{"id":"a16ad01a-d635-4100-b814-81e96c89ebd8","handle":"a16a","type":"note","title":"Intermediate: patterns that combine the basics","aiSummary":"Third layer. First four pages set up the tools: the standing file, skills, agents, and skills and agents together. Then patterns, where the power comes from, expanding what it can do, and when the answer is wrong. Last link opens Autonomous.","erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/a16ad01a-d635-4100-b814-81e96c89ebd8?links=1","fingerprint":"4372e7ceaaf766dbaafe9ab4d2be082846334f92263f64deb6e5dcf53dd07e7a","revisionNo":"8","structureHash":"48aa24ee48f23a3328ee7262c9533a5b44fc6513488ca43144dbc3f903106bea","intent":"recipe","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/a16ad01a-d635-4100-b814-81e96c89ebd8"}}],"dictionary":{"lattris":"A personal knowledge base — how a person captures what they know as linked blocks they own and control. To understand how this knowledge base works: https://lattris.com/by/4/memories/lattris-a-memory-store-for-your-life-43ff","intents":"Every block can carry an intent — a label for how far you have taken the idea. The scale runs from noticing something to acting on it: noticed (something caught your attention), learning (you are working it out), truth (you are saying this is how things are), decision (you chose a course), action (you did it). Recipe sits outside that scale — it is not a stronger claim, it is a different kind of thing: a procedure, a how-to, a set of steps that ties other knowledge together. Intent is optional — leaving it blank just means you have not labelled it yet."},"instructions_to_ai":"This is knowledge from a personal knowledge base. Read it and consider how it's relevant to what the person you're talking to needs. Follow the linked blocks to explore further related topics if it might be useful to the user; open each at its page address. Start by letting the user know what this is about and how it may be relevant to them."}