Skip to main content
Every team has its own way of doing recurring work: how a QBR brief is structured, what a good PRD contains, which numbers go in the Monday update. Without a shared way to say it, every request to Lane starts from scratch, and the results vary with whoever wrote the prompt. A skill is that know-how, written down once. Give it a name and the steps Lane should follow, and from then on anyone on the team can use it, in Ask Lane and in Automations, and get the result in the same shape every time.

​
Create a skill

  1. Go to Settings → Skills and choose Add skill.
  2. Give it a Skill name, for example “QBR prep”.
  3. Write the Instructions: the steps, what to look at, and what the result should contain.
  4. Choose Save.
Skills belong to the workspace, so everyone shares the same set. Any member except Contributors can add, edit or delete them.
Start the instructions with one clear sentence about what the skill is for. Lane uses it to recognize when the skill fits a request.

​
Use a skill

  • In chat: type / (or choose Use a skill) and pick it. Lane follows the skill for that message. If your message asks for something different from the skill, your message wins.
  • By name: just mention it, for example “use QBR prep for Acme”.
  • On its own: when a request clearly matches a skill, Lane can pick it up without being asked.
  • In automations: type / in an automation’s Instructions. Every run follows the skill’s latest version, so improving a skill improves every automation that uses it.
Skills also work when you ask Lane in Slack, by name.

​
Lane’s own skills

Lane comes with skills of its own for certain kinds of work, such as answering questions from your code when GitHub is connected or from product usage when PostHog is connected. You don’t need to pick them; Lane uses them when the work calls for it. If your team has a skill that fits better, Lane uses yours.

​
Ideas to start with

  • QBR prep: the customer’s feedback, open requests, revenue and usage, in your QBR format.
  • Brief format: how your team writes a problem brief, so every Doc Lane drafts starts the same way.
  • Weekly update: the sections and numbers your team expects every Monday, used by a weekly automation.

​
FAQs

Q: Who can use skills?
A: Everyone in the workspace, including Contributors. Only Editors and the Owner can create or change them. Q: What happens if I rename or delete a skill?
A: Renaming is safe: chats and automations that use it keep working. If a skill is deleted, Lane says so and carries on without it. Q: Are skills private to me?
A: No. Skills are shared across the workspace so the whole team works the same way.