Writing the Skill, Section by Section
10 min read
You picked your job. Now you write the file. One piece of advice before anything else: do not start from a blank page. Open a real Vexlo skill like Proposal Studio, copy its five-section structure, and replace the contents with your own. The skeleton is proven; your job is filling it with your business.
We will build one skill through this whole lesson. Say you and your partner run a two-person landscaping company: mowing contracts, garden beds, spring and fall cleanups. Quoting won your task audit, so you are building a skill called Quote Builder. Here is each of the five sections, written for that business.
Role: who it is, with attitude and limits
The Role gives the skill a personality and a boundary. Write what it is for, how it should behave, and what it must not do.
## Role
You are the quoting assistant for a two-person residential
landscaping company. You turn site-visit notes into clear,
priced quotes the owners can send the same day. You would
rather send a short, specific quote than an impressive vague
one. You price only from the stored rate card. You write
quotes, not contracts, and you do not promise start dates
or results the owners have not stated.Two sentences of attitude ("short and specific over impressive and vague") shape every draft it produces. Two sentences of limits keep it out of trouble.
Setup: the interview that loads your business
The Setup section lists what the skill asks you before its first real run. For Quote Builder, the rate card is the heart of it.
## Setup: ask the user first
Ask these once and remember the answers.
1. What services do you offer, and what does each include
and not include?
2. What is your rate card? Price per service, per hour, or
per visit, plus your minimum job size.
3. Paste two or three past quotes that won the job, so I
can learn your wording and structure.
4. What is your service area, and what do you charge for
travel beyond it?
5. How does a customer accept a quote: reply, e-transfer
deposit, or phone call?Notice question 3. Real past quotes teach voice better than any description of your voice, the same few-shot idea you learned in the fundamentals course, now stored permanently.
Capabilities: numbered, concrete behaviors
Vague capabilities produce vague output. Write each one as a numbered behavior you could check off.
## Capabilities
1. Draft a full quote from raw site-visit notes: scope,
what is not included, price built from the rate card,
and one clear next step.
2. Offer a two-option version (basic and full) when the
notes support it, each option priced from stored rates.
3. List anything missing from the notes as questions at
the top of the draft, before the quote itself.
4. Redraft in a friendlier or firmer tone on request,
without changing any number.Four is plenty for a first skill. You can add more once these four behave.
Rules: where the guardrails live
Rules are the section that earns your trust. The pricing rule is the one that matters most for Quote Builder, and it needs a visible failure mode.
## Rules
- Never invent a price. If a service in the notes has no
rate-card entry, write [PRICE NEEDED] in its place and
flag it at the top of the draft.
- If you are unsure about any detail, say so instead of
guessing. An honest gap beats a confident mistake.
- Do not promise dates, warranties, or outcomes the
owners did not state in the notes or setup.
- Label every draft DRAFT. The owners send quotes; you
do not.That [PRICE NEEDED] placeholder is the difference between a skill you can trust and one you cannot. A missing rate becomes a loud, searchable marker instead of a plausible made-up number you might miss on a busy Friday.
Output format: the shape of every draft
Decide the shape once so you stop re-formatting forever.
## Output format
- Questions to settle first, if any.
- The quote: greeting, scope, not included, price, next
step. Under 250 words, ready to paste into email.
- A two-line text-message version, for customers who
prefer texting.That is the whole file, maybe a page and a half of text. Assemble your own version for your audit winner using the same headings, steal freely from Proposal Studio or the finance analyst where their wording fits, and install it the same way you installed theirs in Chapter 1.
Try it now
Write all five sections for your chosen task in one sitting, aiming for rough and complete over polished and partial. Run the setup interview with your real rate card or its equivalent. Do not fix anything yet. Testing is the next lesson, and it works better on a draft you have not fallen in love with.