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Skills and workflows

Every skill and workflow Kater ships, the agent that runs each one, and what goes in a skill file and a workflow folder.

Audience: Business teams and data teams

A skill is how your agent does one task. A workflow is a process in steps, with one agent for each step. An agent is the role that does the work. Each is a Markdown file in ai_tools/, and each can be a starter that anyone runs by name.

Agents, skills and workflows

	Agent	Skill	Workflow
What it holds	A role: a persona, the skills it owns and its rules	The procedure for one task	A process in steps, and the agent for each step
Where it is	`agents/<name>.md`	`skills/<name>.md`	`workflows/<name>/workflow.md`, with one file for each step in `steps/`
What it remembers	Nothing	Nothing	Each step it completes, in your brainstorm folder, so it can carry on later
A starter	With a `starter:` block	With a `starter:` block	With a `starter:` block
On a schedule	No	No	With a `schedule:` block

Keep each kind to its job: the persona in an agent, the procedure in a skill or a workflow step, and the state in the brainstorm folder.

Every skill

Kater ships 28 skills. A skill with a starter shows on AI Tools › Starters. The others are steps that an agent or a workflow uses.

Skill	Category	Agent	Starter	What it does
resolve-workspace	route	Conductor		Finds the one workspace a request needs, or makes a personal one after your yes
planning	plan	Planner	Plan a project	Turns a goal that takes more than one change into a plan in phases
run-plan	plan	Conductor		Runs a plan’s phases one at a time. The Developer builds each one, and QA checks it.
onboard	plan	Planner	Onboard me	A first chat that fills in your `about.md` and ends on one of your own numbers
about-me	plan	Planner	Update About you	Records one thing about you under the right heading of your `about.md`
digest	plan	Planner	Weekly digest	Drafts a digest of the metrics you watch, on a schedule you approve
watch	plan	Planner	Watch a metric	Drafts a watch on one metric, with a line profiled from its history
schedule-workflow	plan	Planner	Schedule a workflow	Sets up, changes, pauses or stops a scheduled workflow
tour	analyze	Analyst	Tour my data	What the connection holds, and three questions it answers now
brief-me	analyze	Analyst	Brief me	What moved in the metrics you watch since your last brief
compare	analyze	Analyst	Compare two periods	One metric in two periods, and the dimensions that moved it most
explain	analyze	Analyst	Explain a metric	How a metric, or a number on screen, is computed, in plain words
build-plan	analyze	Planner		The plan for one question in Why did it change?
build-analysis-dag	analyze	Planner		Turns that plan into queries, decisions and follow-up checks, in order
profile-parameters	analyze	Analyst		Profiles the data for a value the plan needs, such as a threshold
select-analysis-parameters	analyze	Analyst		Picks that value, and records why
run-analysis-dag	analyze	Analyst		Runs the plan’s queries in order
diagnose-findings	analyze	Analyst		Runs the follow-up checks the plan declared
query-authoring	build	Developer		The rules for every query and workspace root
configure-workspace	build	Developer		Picks the model a workspace uses and adds what its queries need
run-phase	build	Developer		Builds one phase of a plan
build-app-ui	build	Developer	Build an app	Builds or changes an app
model-table	build	Developer	Model a new table	Turns synced warehouse tables into shared models and first queries
new-skill	build	Developer	Make your own command	Writes a skill of your own, which you start by name
check	review	QA	Check a number	Traces one number back to its source
test-model	review	QA	Test a model	Locks in answers you trust as tests of a shared model
review-analysis	review	QA	Review an analysis	Checks a finished analysis before its findings are written
synthesize-findings	report	Reporter		Writes the findings and recommendations from reviewed evidence

Every workflow

Kater ships five workflows.

Workflow	Starter	Steps	What it does
deep-analysis	Why did it change?	7	Finds a workspace, then plans, builds, profiles, runs, reviews and reports on one question
build-query-contract	Define a metric	4	Finds what exists, starts a draft, changes it until it is right, then checks and publishes one query
resolve-workspace	Start a workspace	4	Lists the workspaces you can read, rates them for the request, then picks one or makes one and checks it
calibrate-analysis-parameters		2	Profiles an approved analysis again and recommends a new value. It never changes the value itself.
monday-brief	Scheduled	In one file	Every Monday at 08:00, briefs you on what moved last week. See Scheduled workflows.

The Workflows tab with Deep Analysis open, showing its goal and its step map table, and Monday Brief in the list with Every Monday at 08:00 under its name — AI Tools › Workflows, with Deep Analysis open on its step map.

What is in a skill

A skill is one file: a header in YAML, then the procedure in Markdown. This is the header of brief-me:

1
---
2
label: Brief Me
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name: brief-me
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tags: kater-default
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category: analyze
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owned_by: analyst
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description: Brief the person on what moved in the metrics their about.md names, from verified definitions, since a date they give or their last brief.
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starter:
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  title: Brief me
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  summary: What moved since last time
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  icon: newspaper
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  group: Understand
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  order: 1
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  ask: Brief me on what moved in the metrics I watch since my last brief.
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  inputs:
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    - name: since
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      description: How far back to look, such as last Monday or the start of the month. Left out, since your last brief, or a week.
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---

Key	What it holds
`label`	Its name in the library
`name`	How you start it, such as `/brief-me`
`tags`	`kater-default` on each file Kater ships
`category`	`route`, `plan`, `analyze`, `build`, `review` or `report`
`owned_by`	The agent that runs it
`description`	One sentence. Your agent reads it to decide when to use the skill, so say when it applies.
`guide`	The guide in `guides/` it follows, when it has one
`invokes`	Other skills it hands over to
`starter`	Makes it a starter: its `title`, a one-line `summary`, an `icon`, its `group` and `order`, the words it starts with (`ask`), and the `inputs` a person can give it

The body says when to use the skill, the steps it follows, and when to stop:

# Skill: brief-me

## When to use
Use this when the person asks what changed, how things are going, or for their brief.
To find out why something moved, hand over to deep-analysis.

## Procedure
1. **Read what they watch:** `## Metrics I watch` in `{user_root}/about.md`.
2. **Set the window.** From `since` or their words.
3. **Find each metric's verified definition.**
...

## Stop conditions
- No metric has a verified definition: say which lack one, and offer build-query-contract.

Words in braces, such as {user_root}, come from config.yaml. When a starter reaches your agent through the Kater MCP, Kater fills in your own email, so {user_root} is your own folder.

What is in a workflow

A workflow is a folder. workflow.md holds its header, its goal and a step map. Each step is a file in steps/, and your agent reads only the one it is on.

workflows/deep-analysis/
  workflow.md
  steps/
    step-00-resolve-workspace.md
    step-01-plan.md
    step-02-build.md
    step-03-profile-and-calibrate.md
    step-04-execute-and-diagnose.md
    step-05-review.md
    step-06-report.md

1
---
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label: Deep Analysis
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name: deep-analysis
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tags: kater-default
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description: Resolve a workspace, plan, build, profile, execute, review, and report one complex governed analysis.
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config: '../../config.yaml'
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engine: '../../engine.md'
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workspaceMode: resolve
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outputFile: '{brainstorm_folder}/{{analysis_slug}}.md'
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starter:
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  title: Why did it change?
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  summary: Trace a change to its drivers
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  icon: trending-up
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  group: Understand
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  order: 2
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  ask: Why did
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---

Key	What it holds
`config`	The config it loads first
`engine`	The rules it runs by: one step at a time, with a checkpoint after each
`workspaceMode`	`resolve` finds a workspace first, `required` needs one already picked, and `none` uses no workspace
`outputFile`	The note it writes in your brainstorm folder
`starter`	Makes it a starter
`schedule`	Makes it a scheduled workflow, such as `cron: "0 8 * * 1"` for every Monday at 08:00

The step map in workflow.md names each step’s file, its agent, the skills it uses and what it produces. To change who does a step, change its agent there.

Next steps

Make it yours, to write your own skill or change one of these
Starters, every starter and how to run it
Scheduled workflows, each key of a schedule: block