How to Edit and Refine a Skill
Last updated: March 9, 2026
To edit a Skill, tell Ellie what needs to change and she will walk through it. Nothing is changed without explicit approval.
Editing is how repeatable processes get stronger over time. Most Skills benefit from a few rounds of refinement — this is normal and expected, not a sign that something went wrong.
The Editing Process
Tell Ellie which Skill to update — for example, "I'd like to update the Lease Abstract Summary Skill." She will guide through a straightforward process:
Ellie reviews the current Skill to understand what it does and how it is configured.
She asks what needs to change. For example: "The Skill is pulling the base rent correctly, but it is missing the break clause date from section 4 of the lease."
Ellie proposes specific changes and explains her reasoning. She will describe exactly what she plans to adjust so it can be evaluated before anything is modified.
Changes are approved before being applied. Nothing is altered until confirmed.
Ellie applies the changes and suggests re-testing with the same scenario that revealed the issue.
If the requested changes would fundamentally alter what the Skill does — for example, turning a lease abstraction Skill into a full portfolio risk model — Ellie will suggest creating a new Skill instead, so the original remains available for its current purpose.
Giving Effective Feedback
The quality of feedback directly affects how quickly a Skill improves. Specificity matters.
💡 Tip: The best feedback follows a simple pattern: "I expected X, but the Skill produced Y." This lets Ellie diagnose the issue precisely.
Here is the difference in practice:
Vague: "The output isn't right." — Ellie has to guess what went wrong.
Better: "The totals in column C are wrong — they include expired leases that should be excluded." — Ellie knows exactly which calculation to fix and why.
Best: "I expected the WAULT to be 4.2 years based on our standard methodology, but the Skill returned 5.1 years. I think it's including the renewal option period, which we don't count." — Ellie can diagnose the root cause and fix it in one pass.
After Ellie updates the Skill, re-test with the same documents that revealed the issue. This is the fastest way to confirm the fix worked before moving on to new scenarios.
When to Edit vs. Create a New Skill
The rule of thumb: edit when improving the same process, create new when the purpose is fundamentally different.
Edit when:
Handling a new edge case (e.g., the Skill now needs to account for leases with multiple tenants)
Adjusting the output format (e.g., switching from a narrative summary to a table)
Refining a calculation (e.g., correcting how rent escalations compound)
Adding a missing field (e.g., including the security deposit amount)
Create a new Skill when:
The change represents a different process entirely, even if it uses similar documents. Turning a lease abstraction Skill into a tenant credit assessment is a new Skill, not an edit.
A variant is needed for a different use case — for example, a lease abstraction Skill for UK leases vs. US leases. Keeping them separate avoids overloading one Skill with conditional logic.
Ellie will proactively suggest creating a new Skill if the requested changes would fundamentally alter what the existing one does. This protects the original, especially if colleagues depend on it.
A Note on Permissions
Only Skills created by the user — those listed under Your Skills — can be edited. To customise a Shared Skill or a Platform-provided Skill, ask Ellie to create a personal copy. The copy becomes a personal Skill, fully available to edit. The original stays unchanged for everyone else.