How Are a Prompt, a Skill and Instructions Different in an AI Agent?
Three words that sound alike, and three different things on the screen. Where each one sits, who writes it, and where I edit it.
A prompt is what I say or type to the AI agent, and it runs a few sentences or a few paragraphs. A skill is pages of steps, the way I would write an SOP for a new hire. Instructions are the operating rules, core jobs and rhythm my AI agent keeps. I told it to update them with three words, and it wrote them.
Prompt, skill and instructions get used as if they were one thing. In the October 7, 2026 session I touched all three in the same hour, and each one sat in a different place on the screen.
What is a prompt?
I put a prompt next to a skill by length (34:41).
From the recording, 34:41. Prompts can be a few sentences or a few paragraphs. Skills can be pages.
In the session I set up my chief of staff AI agent through the chat, using the dictate feature so I could speak instead of type (10:02). What I say into the chat is the prompt.
What is a skill?
A skill is a workflow, and I compared it to a document I would hand a new hire.
From the recording, 34:06. Skills are actually workflows. It tells our agent what to do step by step.
I added that I can create a skill manually, the way I would write an SOP for a new hire (34:12).
Skills have a place of their own on the screen, and I read mine by opening them.
From the recording, 42:34. So if we're on the screen now, you'll see I've shown you where that we can double click into skills to read that.
What are instructions?
Instructions live in a box on the AI agent. I pointed to it when I set up my chief of staff AI agent.
From the recording, 23:51. You'll notice here, there's a section that says add instructions for agents.
If you're familiar with setting up AI agents, you can type your own instructions there (23:56).
I didn't type mine. I said the first screen and the questions after it would create them (24:07), and later I told the AI agent to update its instructions (40:49).
From the recording, 24:07. So the information that we provided in the first screen and then the questions that we've answered, it will create instructions for us.
When I opened the box later, I named what my AI agent had written into it.
From the recording, 42:46. You'll now see, if you click into that box, my agent has operating rules. It has core jobs and it has a rhythm.
How do the three compare?
| | Prompt | Skill | Instructions | |---|---|---|---| | How I described it | A few sentences or a few paragraphs (34:41) | Pages; a workflow that tells the AI agent what to do step by step (34:06) | Operating rules, core jobs and a rhythm (42:46) | | Where it sits on the screen | The chat (10:19) | The skills section, which I double-click into to read (42:34) | The instructions box on the AI agent (23:51) | | Who writes it | Me, typed or dictated | Me by hand, from a site, or the AI agent for me (34:06) | The AI agent, when I tell it to update them (40:49) |
Is there a rule for what goes in each one?
I didn't give one on October 7. What I showed was the order I built them in. I asked for two skills (36:56), then three words, "update agent instructions", wrote the instructions (40:49). And I edit both in the chat.
Where do I edit them?
From the recording, 42:57. The easiest way to edit would be inside of the chat bot. So inside of the chat feature, that's the easiest way to edit both skills and instructions.
If you give the AI agent access to update its own instructions, I put a reminder on my calendar to go in and read them (43:10). What Does Edit Own Instructions Mean for an AI Agent? covers that switch.
What goes wrong
A skill I didn't write is the first risk. Skills can run to pages, so I'm very hesitant to copy one I can't read (34:47).
How Do You Vet an AI Agent Skill Before You Download It? goes through how I look at one.
The second is instructions that change on their own. With the edit own instructions toggle on, my AI agent updates them, and I said that if you keep it on, you need oversight (25:23).
From the recording, 25:31. You want to be able to manage and have oversight into what the agent is updating.
What the recording doesn't show: the inside of my skills, and the full text of my AI agent's instructions.
Where this comes from
This article grows from the session I taught live with Women Applying AI on October 7, 2026. The quoted passages are my own words, taken verbatim from the recording. The steps, tables and checklists around them were drafted by my team's AI agents from those words and my published pages, and checked against the recording before publishing.
Build Your First AI Agent in One Hour: the full session with the clips, the prompts and the transcript.
Related reading: What Is an AI Agent Skill?, What Are AI Operating Rules?, and How Do You Create Skills for an AI Agent?.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a prompt and a skill?
Length and job. A prompt runs a few sentences or a few paragraphs. A skill can run to pages and walks the AI agent through the steps in order.
Which of the three does the AI agent write for me?
It wrote my instructions when I told it to update them (40:49), and it wrote my skills when I asked for them (36:56).
Where do I edit a skill or instructions?
In the chat. I called that the easiest way to edit both (42:57).
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