Agent Skill vs worker kit: how do they differ?
An Agent Skill is markdown instructions an AI agent loads on demand to learn one technique. A worker kit is a configured worker that does a job unattended.
Skills teach an agent a technique. Kits do a job. Almost every question about how the two relate resolves once you hold that line.
Neither is a better version of the other. A skill improves the work you do while you are sitting there; a kit is the work happening while you are not.
Agent Skill vs worker kit, side by side
| Agent Skill | WorkerKit kit | |
|---|---|---|
| What it carries | Markdown instructions, optional scripts | Instruction, app permissions, memories, schedule, per-model grades |
| Lives in | An agent's skill folder | Your WorkerKit account, as a worker |
| Identity | None | Its own worker, its own key |
| App access | Whatever the session already has | Granted per app at Off, Read or Write, revocable |
| Starts | When you invoke the agent | On a schedule, a webhook, or on demand |
| Runs when you are asleep | No | Yes |
| Leaves an audit trail | No | A receipt per run |
| Cost model | Your client's tokens | Provider list price, no markup |
What an Agent Skill actually is
A skill is a folder. At its root sits SKILL.md: YAML frontmatter with a name and a description, then markdown instructions. Those two fields are the only required ones.
brand-voice/
SKILL.md # name, description, instructions
reference.md # loaded only when needed
scripts/
lint-copy.py # run only if the task calls for itAgents load skills by progressive disclosure, in three stages: at startup only each name and description are in context, the full SKILL.md is read when a task matches, and referenced files or scripts load only if the work needs them. That is what lets a large skill library cost almost nothing until it is used.
Where a skill stops, with a real example
Say you write a skill that teaches an agent how your team reviews pull requests: what to look for, the tone of a review comment, when to block versus suggest.
That skill is genuinely useful, and it does exactly nothing until you open your editor and ask. It has no GitHub credential of its own, no memory of yesterday, and no reason to run.
The Engineering Pulse kit is the other half of that problem. It connects GitHub, runs on a schedule, and delivers a morning digest of pull requests needing review, stale branches, failing workflows and hot issues. Nobody invokes it. The digest is simply there when you start.
Neither replaces the other. The skill improves the review you write; the kit makes sure you knew there was one waiting.
Three more pairings worth seeing
Each row is a technique you might encode as a skill, next to a real kit that does the unattended half:
| A skill could teach | A kit that does the job |
|---|---|
| How to write a follow-up email in your voice | Follow-Up Tracker tracks every thread you are waiting on and drafts the nudge |
| How to qualify a lead against your ICP | Inbound Lead Qualifier qualifies new leads, files them in the CRM and drafts the first reply |
| How to summarise a meeting properly | Meeting Action Item Collector reads your notes each evening and files every action item |
Notice the pattern: the skill is about quality, the kit is about **it happening at all**.
Why an unattended job needs more than instructions
The moment something runs without you, three requirements appear that a SKILL.md has no way to express.
Somewhere to run. A skill runs inside your session. A worker needs a hosted runtime: WorkerKit executes the run so a schedule fires with no machine of yours left on.
Restraint that is not a request. A skill can say "never email the exec team". That is a sentence in a prompt, evaluated against every other pressure in context. A worker gets an app firewall granting Read or Write per app, contact rules that filter reads and refuse blocked recipients, and redaction applied outside the model's reach. A control is not an instruction.
A record. A skill leaves the session transcript. A worker leaves a receipt per run showing what it read, what it did, what it cost and what it skipped.
Can you use both?
Yes, and most people should. Skills encode how your team works, in the tools your team drives by hand. Kits cover the jobs that should happen whether or not anyone opens an editor.
They also sit at different layers from MCP and plugins: MCP is the protocol for reaching a system, a plugin is how skills and MCP config get installed into a client, a skill is the technique, and a kit is the finished job.
FAQ
What is an Agent Skill?
An Agent Skill is a folder of markdown instructions, led by a SKILL.md file carrying a name and a description, that an AI agent loads on demand to learn one technique while you are driving it. Skills are loaded by progressive disclosure, so a large library costs almost nothing until a task matches one.
Is an Agent Skill the same as a WorkerKit kit?
No. A skill is markdown instructions that an agent loads while you are driving it, with no credentials, no schedule and no way to start itself. A WorkerKit kit is a ready-made worker with its own key, its own per-app permissions, memories and a schedule, which runs unattended and leaves a receipt for every run.
Can a skill run on a schedule?
Not on its own. Nothing in the SKILL.md format wakes up: a skill is read into context when an agent decides it is relevant to the task you asked for. If you need something to happen at 7am on its own, you need a worker with a schedule or a webhook trigger.
Do I need to write skills to use WorkerKit?
No. A kit ships with its instruction already written and tested by its publisher, which is the point of a kit. You connect the apps it asks for and run it, with no prompt engineering and no glue code.
Can I turn a skill into a kit?
You can rewrite the technique as a kit's instruction in the Kit Creator Studio, which is a no-code builder: describe the job, pin the apps and the access each one gets, write the instruction, validate and publish. What you add on top of the skill's text is the part a skill has no slot for: which apps, at what access level, on what schedule.
Which is cheaper to run?
Skills and kits are metered differently. A skill costs whatever your client charges for the tokens in your session. A WorkerKit worker costs your plan (Free is $0 with 5 workers and 500 tool calls a day) plus model tokens at the provider list price with no markup, from a wallet or your own key. See /pricing.