Writing skills
A skill is a reusable set of writing instructions. It captures a format or technique—such as a launch thread, changelog post, contrarian hook, or customer-story structure—without copying the subject matter of the source post.
Skills are different from voice:
| Skills | Voice | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Reuse a format or technique | Match how a person or brand normally writes |
| Examples | Thread structure, launch pattern, hook formula | Tone, vocabulary, sentence rhythm |
| Sharing | Private or public per skill | Personal voice stays private; brand voice is workspace-wide |
Create a skill by hand
Open Skills in the workspace sidebar and choose New skill. The library loads every visible API page before it shows the list, so All, Mine, search results, counts, and empty states cover the complete visible library. Skills appear newest first. Add:
- a memorable name;
- an optional one-sentence description;
- the instructions AI should follow;
- Private or Public visibility.
Private skills are visible and usable only by their creator—even Admins and Owners cannot read them. Public skills are available to every workspace member and appear on the creator's People profile.
Your private skill may share a name with another person's public skill. WriteMars shows visibility and creator context in pickers so you can tell them apart. Public skill names are unique within a workspace.
Generate a skill from published posts
If AI is enabled, choose Generate from posts. You can either:
- use your recent and top-performing published posts; or
- select up to 20 published posts you can access.
Optional guidance can tell the generator what to study—for example, “Focus on the thread structure and the closing call to action.” For an X thread, WriteMars reads the opening tweet and its ordered replies, not just the opener.
Generation returns a draft and saves nothing automatically. Review the name, description, instructions, and visibility before choosing Save skill. The response also includes a signed, single-use generation token that is bound to you and the workspace and expires after 30 minutes. A successful save consumes it; replaying it returns 400. When you save with that token, WriteMars records the server-counted source posts and generation time, so clients cannot assert those fields directly. You may edit the draft before saving, so provenance confirms the recent generation run and source count rather than certifying every saved word.
Apply a skill while writing
Open Write with AI in a supported editor and choose a skill from the picker. Search checks the server-side visible library, and Load more skills continues beyond the first 200 results. No skill leaves the normal drafting behavior unchanged.
The skill guides format and technique. It remains subordinate to platform limits, WriteMars's core rules, and your explicit request. Applying a skill never publishes, schedules, or approves content.
Super chat can search the complete visible skill library by name and fetch a selected skill's instructions. The library is permission-filtered: chat cannot discover another member's private skills.
Manage and moderate skills
| Action | Creator | Admin or Owner | Other member |
|---|---|---|---|
| View/use a private skill | Yes | No | No |
| View/use a public skill | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rename a skill | Yes | No | No |
| Edit description and instructions on a public skill | Yes | Yes | No |
| Make a public skill private | Yes | Yes | No |
| Delete a public skill | Yes | Yes | No |
An Admin or Owner who makes somebody else's public skill private immediately loses access to it. Only the creator can then see or use it.
Skills are tied to both their creator and workspace membership. If the creator leaves or is removed from the workspace, WriteMars permanently deletes all of their private and public skills in that workspace. Skills they own in other workspaces are unaffected.
Writing a useful skill
Good skill instructions are specific and topic-independent:
1. Open with one concrete result in a short sentence.
2. Explain the previous problem in no more than two paragraphs.
3. Use a three-item list for the change.
4. Close with one practical next step, not a generic engagement question.
Avoid facts, links, names, or product claims that belong to one source post. Put those details in the writing prompt instead.