Skills

Skills are reusable instructions that teach Atom patterns, techniques, or brand guidelines. Once created, invoke a skill with a slash command or by naming it in your prompt.

What Skills Are For

Skills capture knowledge you want to preserve across projects:

  • Brand guidelines — Color palettes, typography rules, logo animation standards
  • Animation techniques — Kinetic type recipes, easing preferences, timing patterns
  • Project conventions — Layer naming schemes, comp organization, expression templates
  • Reusable workflows — Title card structures, lower third layouts, transition styles

Instead of re-explaining “use our brand’s overshoot easing on all scale animations” every time, create a skill once and invoke it whenever you need it.

Creating Skills

There are two ways to create skills: ask Atom or create one manually.

Ask Atom to Create a Skill

Just describe what you want and Atom will build a reusable skill you can call by name in future chats:

Look at this comp and save the branding setup as a skill I can reuse
Save a skill that preps comps for client review with watermarks and a downscaled export
Make a skill that animates text layers with smooth kinetic type

Atom gathers context about your project using its tools, inspecting layers, properties, keyframes, and expressions. It then writes a self-contained skill with a name, description, and detailed instructions. You’ll see a live preview as it generates.

You can create skills from existing work or from a description alone. When there’s relevant project context, Atom inspects what you’ve built. When you describe something from scratch, Atom writes the instructions based on your description.

You can also guide what gets captured:

Create a skill that focuses on the expression we just wrote
Save this as a skill, but generalize it for any font

When creating a skill from existing work, build or refine it in the same conversation first. The more relevant context in the chat history, the better the skill.

Create Manually

  1. Type / in the chat input
  2. Select Create Skill from the menu
  3. Fill in the fields:
    • Name -- A short, descriptive name (becomes the skill ID in kebab-case)
    • Description -- When to use this skill
    • Instructions -- Detailed guidance for Atom

Or open Settings > Skills > Create to access the same form.

Using Skills

Slash Commands

Type / followed by the skill name to invoke it:

/corporate-style make a title card for "Q4 Results"
/kinetic-type animate the tagline with bounce

The skill appears as a token in your input. Atom loads the skill’s instructions before processing your request.

Type / and start typing to filter skills by name. Use arrow keys to navigate and Enter to select.

Natural Language

You can also reference a skill by name or ID conversationally:

Apply my logo animation skill to this layer
Use the corporate branding skill for this comp

Atom can load matching skills when the request clearly points to a specific skill.

Automatic Matching

The most reliable path is explicit invocation (/skill-id or naming the skill directly in your message). That keeps behavior predictable and makes it clear which instructions are active.

Managing Skills

Open Settings > Skills to view, edit, copy, or delete your skills.

Each skill shows:

  • Name — The display name
  • Description — When to use it
  • Edit — Modify the skill’s instructions
  • Copy — Copy the skill content to clipboard
  • Delete — Remove the skill permanently

Skill File Format

Skills are stored as SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: kinetic-type
description: Animated text reveal with overshoot easing
---

Apply scale animation from 0% with overshoot...

(Markdown instructions continue here)

The name field becomes the skill ID (converted to kebab-case). The description explains when to use the skill (target ~100 characters, 500 max). Everything after the frontmatter is the instructions Atom follows.

Attachments

Skills can bundle JSX (ExtendScript) files alongside the instructions. When Atom creates a skill that involves reusable scripts, it saves them as numbered .jsx files in the skill folder and references them in the frontmatter:

---
name: review-prep
description: Prep comps for client review with watermark and downscaled export
attachments:
  1: "Watermark overlay script"
  2: "Export preset builder"
---

The attachment files (1.jsx, 2.jsx, etc.) live next to SKILL.md in the skill’s folder. Atom writes these automatically when creating skills that need them.

Storage Location

Skills are stored locally at ~/Library/Application Support/atom/skills/

Each skill has its own folder containing a SKILL.md file and any bundled .jsx attachments. You can manually edit or back up these folders between machines.

Example Skills

Brand Color Palette

---
name: acme-brand
description: Use for all Acme Corp projects
---

# Acme Brand Guidelines

## Colors
- Primary: #E63946 (Acme Red)
- Secondary: #1D3557 (Navy)
- Accent: #F1FAEE (Off-white)
- Text: #457B9D (Steel blue)

## Usage
- Headlines: Acme Red on Navy
- Body text: Steel blue
- Backgrounds: Off-white or Navy
- Never use red on navy without white outline

Animation Preset

---
name: smooth-reveal
description: Standard text reveal animation
---

# Smooth Reveal Pattern

## Setup
1. Set text opacity to 0%
2. Set position 50px below final
3. Add keyframes over 20 frames

## Timing
- Opacity: Linear
- Position: Ease out (75% influence)
- Stagger layers by 3 frames

## Finishing
- Add 0.5px motion blur
- Enable continuous rasterization for sharp edges

Expression Template

---
name: wiggle-control
description: Controlled wiggle with slider
---

# Wiggle Control Setup

Create a slider control named "Wiggle Amount" on the layer.

Apply this expression to the property:

    wiggleAmount = effect("Wiggle Amount")("Slider");
    freq = 3;
    amp = wiggleAmount;
    wiggle(freq, amp);

This lets the animator dial in wiggle intensity without editing the expression.