SkillsIn closed beta
Save something you do often as steps the Matchai Assistant follows, then run it any time by typing a slash and its name.
A skill is something you do often, written down as plain, numbered steps your assistant follows. Run one by typing / and its name, such as /weekly-report. The assistant can also pick a skill on its own when your request plainly matches it.
A skill holds steps, never a client's details. It never contains a name, an address, a phone number, an email, a price or an identifier. Instead, it says where each one comes from when it runs, so the same skill works for every client.
Skills are not memory. Memory is how you like things done. A skill is a job the assistant carries out step by step.
Make a skill
The easiest way: do the task with your assistant once, then say "save that as a skill". The assistant writes down the steps it actually took, asks at most a couple of questions about anything that was not settled, and shows you the skill on a card. After a task of several steps that went well, it may offer to save it once.
You can also train one in the Dojo:
At the top of the assistant, open Settings with the gear, choose Skills, then Open your skills.
Under The Dojo, choose Train a new skill. You can also type /new-skill in the chat.
Answer the assistant's questions, one at a time. You see the skill fill in as you go.
When the card shows the whole skill, choose Save the skill. Nothing is saved before that.
After a task on another website that worked, the assistant can also turn what it did into a skill. It keeps the pages, buttons and fields it used, never what was typed.
Show it on a website
In the Browser Dojo, you walk through the task yourself on the website, in Chrome, and your assistant follows along. Choose Show your assistant to start. It keeps what you clicked, never what you typed, and the skill is saved only when you approve its card. When a task on a website does not work out, the assistant may offer this once.
Names
A skill's name is lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, such as check-permits. That is what you type after the /. In your messages, it shows as a pill in plain words, such as "Check permits".
Run a skill
In the message box, type / at the start of a word, or choose Use a skill.
Pick the skill from the menu. It appears as a pill in your message.
Add what it needs, such as an address or a listing, and press Send.
You can name a skill in the middle of a sentence: "can you /check-permits for 42 Main". You can name several in one message, and the assistant runs the ones you asked for, one at a time, in the order you asked. Asking about a skill, such as "what does /weekly-report do?", does not run it. When the assistant cannot tell whether you want it run, it asks.
The assistant may also choose a skill by itself when your request plainly matches what the skill is for. If you would rather it only ever ran when you type its name, ask the assistant to change that. Such a skill is marked Only when you type it in your library.
Skills that open websites
Some skills work on other websites, in your own browser. See Websites for what that needs.
- When you type the skill, that is your go-ahead for its browser tasks on the websites it lists. Each task starts on its own after a short countdown, with Stop on its card.
- When the assistant picks the skill itself, it asks once first. The Skill run card shows the Sites it can open without asking again, how many browser tasks it may start, and for how long. Choose Start the skill. For the next hour, its tasks on those sites start on their own.
- Stop the skill, on its cards, ends the approval and anything it has running in your browser. You can also ask the assistant to stop it.
- During a skill run, the assistant stays on the websites the skill lists. If a page leads somewhere else, the run stops and hands the page to you.
- Any final button, one that pays, sends, publishes, signs or deletes, still asks you first. See Approvals.
Saving a change to a skill, restoring an earlier version or deleting it ends its approvals: an approval covers the skill as you saw it.
Change, restore or delete a skill
Every change to a skill asks you first, and there is no setting to turn that off.
- Change it. Ask in the chat, such as "change my /weekly-report skill: add the listing's address to the subject". In your library, Change it with your assistant starts that message for you. The card shows the whole skill and what changed, including when it runs and which websites it opens. Choose Save the skill.
- Go back to an earlier version. Each skill's History lists its versions. Ask your assistant for the one you want. It shows you that version's steps before anything changes. Choose Put it back.
- Delete it. Ask your assistant. The card names the skill. Choose Delete the skill. A deleted skill and its history cannot be brought back.
The skills that come with Matchai cannot be changed or deleted.
Why it works this way
A memory line is one sentence, shown to you with an Undo the moment it is saved. A skill is different: the assistant follows it step by step on later days, often while you are busy with something else. A line in a skill that you never read would change what the assistant does when you are not watching. So every change is shown to you in full, and saved only when you say yes.
What a skill cannot hold
When a skill would contain any of these, the assistant refuses before showing you a card, and says why:
- a password, a code, a card number or another identifier;
- a person's details, such as an email address, a phone number, or a price with an address;
- an identifier that points at one record, so the skill would only work for that one;
- a link that carries the details of one search, or a link that is not secure;
- a line telling the assistant to skip asking you, such as "without asking" or "auto-approve";
- hidden characters you cannot see on screen.
Why it works this way
A skill is written to be followed again and again, for every client. Keeping personal details out means it never carries one client's information into another client's work, and it reads every detail live, so it is never out of date.
Your skills library
Open it from the assistant's Settings: choose Skills, then Open your skills.
Under Your skills, each skill shows its name, what it is for, and where it came from: From Matchai, Trained in the Dojo or Shown in the Browser Dojo. Open one to see How you run it, Websites it opens, When it runs, Where it came from, The steps exactly as the assistant reads them, and its History.
From there:
- Run it puts the skill in the message box, ready to send.
- Change it with your assistant starts a change in the chat.
- Export downloads the skill as a file. Export them all, at the top of your library, downloads every skill you made.
Nothing in the library changes a skill directly. Every change goes through the chat, where you see it before it is saved.
Skills that come with Matchai
| Skill | What it does |
|---|---|
/new-skill | Turns something you do often into a saved skill, by asking you a few questions. |
/montreal-property-assessment | Looks up a property on the City of Montréal's assessment roll, saves the page on the listing when the property is one of yours, and tells you what it found. Give it an address or a listing. |
Because the Montréal assessment roll is a public website that Matchai vouches for, when the assistant uses this skill it can start one lookup without asking, with Stop on its card. Like every task on a website, it needs Matchai for Chrome. See Websites.