Skills

Skills add professional capability components to AI.

Analogy: a phone comes with basic apps like a camera, maps, and calculator out of the box, but if you want to watch short videos you need to install Douyin, and if you want to order food delivery you need to install Meituan — Apps extend the phone's specialized capabilities.

The AI in Cherry Studio works the same way: by default it has conversational ability, and if you need specialized tasks such as “writing Xiaohongshu image/text posts,” “drafting patent applications,” or “drawing Mermaid flowcharts,” you caninstall the corresponding skills for it.

• Objects that can be installed:Assistant or agents
• Objects that cannot be installed: the underlying model. Skills are capabilities at the Cherry Studio layer and do not affect the model itself
• Effect after enabling: when handling related tasks, AI automatically responds in the professional way defined by the skill

Recommended reading first Concepts introduction Learn about the differences between Skills, MCP, and Assistants.

Where to manage skills

Open Settings → Skills:

Skills management panel

You can see:

• Installed: skills currently added to this account
• Built-in: built-in skills that come with Cherry Studio (usable without installation)
• Search / Filter: filter by name or category

Install skills

There are two ways:

Method 1: Let the Agent install it for you(easiest)

In chat, say to the built-in Cherry Claw (or another fully automatic mode Agent), for example:

"Please help me install a skill that can make Xiaohongshu image/text posts."

The Agent will automatically search the registry and complete the installation. The empty-state panel also has the same official prompt.

Method 2: Manual installation

Open Settings → Skills, choose as needed:

• Install online: in the upper-right corner of the page Find more skills… Enter the skill name in the search box. The system will search the online registries (claude-plugins.dev / skills.sh / clawhub.ai) and display the results; click to install
• Install from ZIP file: click the “Install from ZIP file” button in the right-side empty state, and select a local ZIP package
• Install from folder: click “Install from folder” to choose a locally extracted skill directory
• Drag-and-drop installation: directly drag the ZIP file or folder to the dashed area on the right

After successful installation, the skill will appear in the left-side “Installed” list and can be enabled by checking it in Assistant or Agent settings.

Enable skills in the Assistant

• Enter Assistant settings → Skills
• Check the skills you want to enable
• During conversation, the assistant will automatically call the selected skills according to the prompt

in agents enabled in

In addition to Settings → Skills doing global management in, you can also enter a single Agent's editing interface to view its currently available skills:

Skills tab in the agent editing interface

• Enter Agent editing interface → Skills tab
• View currently installed / built-in / local skills
• Use the switch on the right to decide whether this Agent enables a certain skill
• The Agent will autonomously decide when to call enabled skills based on the task content

Skills vs MCP Tools vs Provider

Type	Provider	What it's suitable for
Skills	Built-in or third-party skill packages	Template-based tasks (writing emails / drawing charts / making PPTs)
MCP tools	Any MCP Server	Tasks that require external API / system command calls
Provider models	AI vendors	Underlying conversation capability

The three can be combined: an Agent can mount multiple skills + multiple MCP tools + a model from any Provider at the same time.

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💡 Get help and submit feedback

If you encounter any questions, bugs, or have suggestions for feature improvements during configuration or use, please refer to Feedback and Suggestions the official channels provided there.