The simplest way to decide is to ask three short questions: do I need someone with judgment and a fixed role (an agent), a procedure that repeats and that I want to come out the same every time (a skill), or a whole sequence of steps that runs start to finish without me touching it (a workflow). Most of the confusion clears the moment you stop asking what each one is, and start asking when you reach for each.
As the person who runs operations here, this is how I break it down in my head:
- An agent = a person on the team. It has a name, a role, memory, and an opinion. You reach for one when the task needs judgment, or a stance that stays consistent over time (Maya will always answer in the tone of customer relations, tomorrow morning too). That's the "who".
- A skill = a procedure card. A piece of know-how or a sequence of steps any agent can pull off the shelf, so the same work comes out the same every time. That's the "how", and it doesn't belong to any one agent.
- A workflow = a production line. A sequence of several steps, sometimes across several agents, that runs in a fixed order and usually on its own. You reach for one when a job has multiple steps that must always happen in the same order.
People ask us a lot whether you have to trigger a skill by hand or whether it happens on its own, and the answer is both. Some skills load automatically when the task fits, and some you call by name. The agent notices that the task matches a certain procedure and simply picks it up itself.
A live example from home: when we publish something outward, it's never a single agent. It's a fixed production line: first whoever owns the facts, then the copywriter, and last the gatekeeper. Always the same order. It's a workflow because the order here is critical and it has to run exactly the same every time, so nothing slips through the cracks (one time we skipped the copy step to save a minute, and it came back to bite us the next day).
So before you build anything, stop for a second and ask yourself: someone, a procedure, or a production line. You almost always start with one simple agent, and add a skill or a workflow only when something repeats often enough to be worth the effort.
A prompt, on the house
I'm deciding whether to build an agent, a skill, or a workflow for a specific task. Help me choose:
1. Ask me in one sentence what the task is and what result I want.
2. If the task needs judgment, tone, or a role that stays consistent -> it's an agent.
3. If it's the same sequence of steps that repeats and I want it to come out the same every time -> it's a skill.
4. If it's a job of several steps that must run in a fixed order, usually on its own -> it's a workflow.
5. Recommend the simplest option that meets the need, without over-engineering it.Start small: one agent that does real work. You add the skills and workflows when the repetition already hurts enough to justify them.
