Learn how skills work in Google Workspace Studio

Important:

• Skills are available to users on the Gemini Beta Program.
• Your Workspace Admin controls if you can access skills and/or share skills with users outside your organization. If you can't find skills in your Workspace Studio page or access certain functionalities below, contact your Workspace Admin.

How to use skills in Google Workspace

Skills are customizable reusable instructions that you give Gemini to accomplish tasks. You can use skills for things like:

• Form filling: You can create a "Fill out this template" skill that can create copies of a product, event, or partnership proposal file, and fills it out on your behalf.
• Brand consistency: You can create a "Brand Guidelines" skill that can create or revise documents, slides, and emails based on your brand voice.
• Cross-app utility: After you create a skill, you can use it across Gemini in Workspace apps like Gmail, Chat, Docs, and Slides for enhanced productivity.

Create & manage skills

You can choose from pre-created skill templates, like:

• Team Celebration
• Project Summary
• Customer Briefing
• Contract Creation
• Brand Guidelines
• Leadership Updates

To create your own skill:

1. Go to Google Workspace Studio.
2. On the left, click Skills.
3. Select or create a skill:
   • To select a skill:
     1. Under "Templates," select a skill.
     2. Optional: To fit a skill to your needs, customize the template.
     3. Click Add to my skills Turn on .
   • To create a skill:
     1. Click Create .
     2. In the skill builder chat window, enter a description for your skill.
     3. Review the generated skill instructions. You can make any adjustments needed.
     4. Optional: You can test your skill before you enable it. In the skill builder chat box on the left, provide additional details and ask the skill builder tool to test your skill.
     5. Click Turn on .
4. Optional: To edit a skill you created or customized, you can use the skill-builder chat window or enter your own text and resources. For best results, you can:
   • Add context: Upload reference files or link to Google Drive folders that contain the best standard for the task.
   • Define output: Teach the skill how to respond. For example, "Provide a bulleted list of risks and a final Go/No-Go recommendation."

After you create your skill, you can use the skill inside the Workspace Studio and the Gemini side panel in other apps. This includes the "Ask Gemini" side panel in Workspace studio.

You can also manage your skills:

• Share a skill: You can share a link to allow others to make a copy of your skill. A copy includes the:
  • Latest setup
  • Any referenced files
  • Text and email addresses
  • Copies of referenced flows

  Anyone with the link can find your email address as the skill creator.

  To share a skill:

  1. Go to Google Workspace Studio.
  2. On the left, click Skills.
  3. Under "My skills," click the skill you want to share.
  4. At the top left, click Share Private My organization.
  5. Click Copy link .
     • You can only share skills that are turned on.

• Update a skill:
  1. Go to Google Workspace Studio.
  2. On the left, click Skills.
  3. Under "My skills," click the skill you want to update.
  4. Make the required updates.
  5. Click Update.

• Turn off or delete your skills:
  1. Go to Google Workspace Studio.
  2. On the left, click Skills.
  3. Under "My Skills," click the skill you want to turn off or delete.
  4. Click Turn off or Delete .

Collaborate on a skill inside Google Docs 

If you make updates or enhance your skill instructions in Google Doc, you can sync these instructions inside Workspace Studio. To sync updates from your document, at the top right of your skills page, click More options Sync with Docs .

Tip: If you have your skill open already, the sync option won't show unless you refresh your page.

Apply skills in a Workspace Studio flow

If you use flows to automate certain tasks, you can add a skill into the flow. For example, to make sure your automated email responses match your brand's tone and communication guidelines, add a "Client Communication" skill.

A skill directs how Gemini acts within its current capabilities. It doesn't grant Gemini new powers like to create images if the tool doesn't already support it.

Use skills in your flows

To use one of your skills inside your flows:

1. Turn on the required skill.
2. Add Ask Gemini as one of the steps inside your flow.
   • To learn more about the various starters and steps you can use inside a flow, go to Guide to Starters and Steps in Workspace Studio.
3. When you're inside the flow creation process, click Add step .
4. Select Ask Gemini .
5. From the "Ask Gemini panel," add a skill.
   • Reference skill by name: In the prompt box, enter the name of the skill. From your skills, the skill name that matches your request is searched for and those instructions are automatically applied. For example, "Use my Marketing Tone skill to draft a reply."
   • Select skill from the dropdown:
     1. In the "Skills" box, enter your skills name.
     2. From the dropdown, select the required skill.
6. Optional: Select the sources you want Gemini to use while it assists with the flow. You can give Gemini access to:
   • Specific sources, for example, specific Google Drive files
   • Entire Workspace content
   • Your Google search
   • All aforementioned sources combined
7. Click Save.

Trigger flows with your skills

Important: This feature is currently only available to users on the Gemini Beta program.

If you use flows that start with a "Start manually" starter step, you can add those flows directly into your skill. This allows you to give custom instructions to extract or generate data. Then, it instantly passes that data into a flow to automate actions, like updating a CRM or drafting a document.

To use this flow inside your skill:

1. Create and turn on a flow that uses the Start manually starter. Give your custom input fields a "Data name" but leave the "Default value" empty.
2. Create a skill that can extract the specific details from resources like emails, chat conversations, and documents, to feed into the default value field.

For example, in your skill instructions, you can write "Read the currently open email thread and extract the customer's name. Once you've extracted the name, pass the details onto the flow and run the Sales CRM flow."

When you invoke this skill in your Workspace apps, the user's name is extracted and passed to your flow to execute the downstream steps.

Use custom skills in Workspace apps

When you enter "@" and then the skill name, you can use the skills you enabled directly in Workspace apps, like Google Docs, Slides, Drive, Chat, and Gmail.

• Google Docs, Slides, and Drive:
  1. In Docs, Slides, or Drive, at the top right or bottom, click Ask Gemini .
  2. In the prompt box, enter: @. Then, the skill name.
  3. Select the skill.
  4. Enter your prompt.
• Gmail:
  1. In Gmail, at the top right, click Ask Gemini .
  2. In the prompt box, enter: @. Then, the skill name.
  3. Select the skill.
  4. Enter your prompt.
• Google Chat:
  1. In Chat, beside the search bar, click Ask Gemini .
  2. In the input box, enter: @. Then, the skill name.
  3. Select the skill.
  4. Enter your prompt.

Related resources

• Get started with Google Workspace Studio
• Create a flow with Gemini AI
• Manage & share your flows in Google Workspace Studio