HOWAI / THE FIELD GUIDE
A little guidance.
A lot more possibility.
Practical notes for making Skills part of your work. Start with a method. Leave with something you made.
Make your first thing Read it. Try it. Make it yours.01 / THE ESSENTIALS
From curious to capable.
Three chapters. One small thing to make.
02 / YOUR WORKSPACE
Same idea. Your agent.
Using Skills
Build a better working habit.
Better briefs, deliberate choices and results you can check.
- 3 min
Get useful results from a Skill
Turn an installed method into a checked deliverable with a clear brief, real inputs and focused revisions.
- 3 min
Help your agent choose the intended Skill
Separate discovery from invocation, test explicit selection and diagnose why a normal request chooses another method.
- 3 min
Update and remove Skills without losing your work
Keep a version record, update HowAI-managed packages and handle local modifications before replacing or removing files.
- 3 min
Review a Skill before you run it
Inspect instructions, scripts, tool access and costs before using a downloaded procedure with your own files or accounts.
Concepts
Know the moving parts.
A little context for choosing the right tool for the job.
- 3 min
How prompts, instructions, Skills and MCP fit together
Choose the layer that solves the actual problem: a request, an ongoing convention, a reusable procedure or a tool connection.
- 3 min
When should a prompt become a Skill?
Keep one-off requests simple. Package a procedure when repeated work needs maintained instructions, examples or supporting files.
- 3 min
Skills versus project instructions
Keep persistent project conventions separate from the task procedures you load when a particular capability is needed.
- 3 min
Skills and MCP solve different parts of a workflow
Distinguish a reusable working method from a connection to tools and data, then decide whether your task needs either or both.
Reference
Keep these within reach.
The commands, locations and answers you need along the way.
- 3 min
Skill commands and setup: a quick reference
Look up installation commands, target directories, package states and the next guide to use when something fails.
- 3 min
Where to put Skill folders
Check personal and project targets, avoid extra ZIP nesting and identify which copy your agent is loading.
- 4 min
Fix a Skill problem by its symptom
Find the failing layer: package access, local installation, agent discovery, selection or execution. Check that layer before reinstalling.
A NOTE FOR WHEN YOU GET STUCK
Find the snag.
Keep making.
Start with what you see. Find the failed step before you reinstall.
The troubleshooting guideFOR THE COMMAND LINE
A shorter way in.
Install, update and manage your Skills from the terminal.
Read the CLI handbooknpx --yes https://howai.build/cli/howai-cli-0.1.5.tgz install cobalt-system-deck --api https://howai.buildSign in when prompted, then reload your agent.