What is a skill
A SKILL.md file that teaches Copilot how to work.
Skills are the open Markdown instruction-file format used by Microsoft Copilot Cowork and SharePoint AI Skills. They follow the same spec as Anthropic's Claude skills, and you can author them in any editor — no SDK, no plugin, no compile step.
Two places to drop them.
Cowork custom skills live in OneDrive at /Documents/Cowork/skills/<name>/SKILL.md — Cowork picks them up automatically at conversation start (up to 20 per user, Frontier programme required).
SharePoint AI Skills live in the site's Agent Assets library. Authored by anyone with edit permission; run by anyone with view.
The description field in the YAML frontmatter is what the AI uses to decide whether to auto-load the skill — it has to be specific enough that the trigger scenario is unambiguous.
--- name: SharePoint Oversharing Audit description: > Audits SharePoint sharing links and flags sites where external or broad access exceeds the defined policy. Use when asked to review oversharing, sharing link governance, external access, or broad-permission risks. Aligned to ASD Essential Eight Control 5. --- # SharePoint Oversharing Audit ## Objective Review all active sharing links and site permissions across the sites in scope. Identify sites where external sharing or Anyone links exceed organisational policy. Produce a risk-ranked table of sites requiring remediation. ## Steps 1. List all SharePoint sites in scope 2. Retrieve active sharing links by type 3. Flag Anyone links and external recipients not on the approved domain list 4. Calculate a risk score 5. Compile into the output table ## Output format | Site | URL | Sharing Type | External | Risk | Action |
Frequently asked
Common questions about skills.
What is a Cowork Skill?
A Cowork Skill is a Markdown instruction file that teaches Microsoft Copilot how to perform a specific task the way your organisation wants it done. It sits in OneDrive at /Documents/Cowork/skills/, is loaded automatically at conversation start, and is triggered when Copilot recognises a matching scenario in the description frontmatter.
Where do SharePoint AI Skills live?
SharePoint AI Skills live in each site’s Agent Assets library. Anyone with edit permission on the site can author a skill; anyone with view permission can run it. This makes the site itself the unit of governance — the same permission model that already protects your content also controls who can author and execute skills.
Do I need a Copilot licence to use these skills?
Yes. You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence to run Cowork Skills or SharePoint AI Skills. Cowork custom skills additionally require enrolment in the Microsoft Frontier programme, and SharePoint AI Skills require a tenant administrator to opt in to AI in SharePoint and enable Agent Assets on the relevant sites.
Is SKILL.md the same format as Anthropic’s Claude skills?
Yes — it is the same open format. A SKILL.md file is plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter (name and description), and the description field is what the AI uses to decide whether to auto-load the skill. The format originated with Anthropic’s Claude skills and was adopted by Microsoft Copilot Cowork and SharePoint AI Skills.
Are the EDUC4TE skills aligned to Essential Eight or IRAP?
Yes. The EDUC4TE Australian Governance Pack maps skills to ASD Essential Eight Maturity Level 2 controls and produces ISM-mapped evidence trails suitable for a 2026 IRAP QA Framework assessment. Each skill in the pack lists the specific E8 controls it supports so the audit linkage is explicit.