Skills
A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that teaches the agent how to do one kind of work, such as building a DCF model, writing a morning note or producing a Word document. LangAlpha follows the open Agent Skills format: SKILL.md starts with a short header giving a name and a description, followed by instructions, and the folder can carry scripts, templates and reference files next to it. A skill is instructions and files only. It cannot add a new tool; tools come from MCP servers.
Three tiers
Section titled “Three tiers”| Tier | Who owns it | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | LangAlpha | Every workspace, for every user |
| Yours | You, uploaded to your account (or added by a plugin you install) | Every workspace you have |
| Workspace | You, added to one workspace | That workspace only |
A workspace skill overrides one of yours with the same name, and the Skills tab marks it “Overrides your skill”. Built-in names cannot be reused: LangAlpha refuses an upload whose name or command matches a built-in skill, and a few commands (subagent, compact, compaction, summarize, offload, truncate) are reserved for chat controls. Built-in skills can be switched off but not removed.
How the agent loads a skill
Section titled “How the agent loads a skill”Skills load on demand so they do not crowd the agent’s context. Every turn the agent sees a manifest with one line per enabled skill: the skill’s name and its description. The full instructions are only read in when:
- you type the skill’s slash command in chat (type
/in the message box to see the list), or - the agent decides the description fits the task and reads that skill’s
SKILL.md.
Because every description is listed on every turn, descriptions are capped at 1,024 characters, and SKILL.md itself at 64 KB (the agent reads all of it). Detail that is not always needed belongs in files next to SKILL.md.
Slash commands and aliases
Section titled “Slash commands and aliases”Every skill you add answers to /<name>. A skill can declare a command: alias in its header, which replaces the name as its slash command; it is read on the first upload, and dropped without a message if another skill already uses it. Commands use lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, up to 64 characters. You can also rename the command of a built-in skill from the Skills tab. Not every built-in skill has a command: the tables below say which do.
Adding your own skills
Section titled “Adding your own skills”On the Plugins page, Add, Upload a skill accepts a skill’s folder, a .zip of one, or a single SKILL.md (you can also paste one in). Re-uploading a name replaces your existing skill. Limits:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Zip size | 2 MB |
| Unzipped size | 8 MB |
| One file | 1 MB |
| Files per skill | 64 |
SKILL.md |
64 KB |
| Skill name | lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens, up to 64 characters |
| Description | up to 1,024 characters |
| Skills per account | 200 (32 MB in total) |
To add a skill to one workspace only, upload it from that workspace’s settings, Skills tab; it then runs only there. The agent can also create workspace skills itself: a folder placed at .agents/skills/<name>/ in the workspace with a valid SKILL.md is saved as that workspace’s skill shortly after the turn completes. That is how you install a skill from a GitHub repository into one workspace: ask the agent to fetch the repository and copy the skill’s folder into the workspace’s skills. A workspace skill can later be moved to all your workspaces from the Skills tab.
To install skills from a public git URL for your whole account, use Install plugin on the Plugins page. A repository that has no plugin manifest but contains SKILL.md folders installs too: each one becomes a skill of a plugin named after the repository. See Plugins, MCP servers and programmatic tool calling.
Switching skills off
Section titled “Switching skills off”You can disable a built-in skill for your whole account, or for a single workspace. A workspace cannot re-enable a skill you disabled account-wide. Switching off a plugin switches off the skills it carries. If one skill relies on a shared layer (research-conventions), that layer stays available as long as any skill that needs it stays on.
Built-in skills
Section titled “Built-in skills”LangAlpha ships 35 skills, grouped here by the built-in plugin that carries them. Two are special: onboarding is hidden and runs automatically after you save your investing profile, and research-conventions is a shared layer of evidence and judgement rules that the research skills read, with no command of its own.
Research (langalpha-research)
Section titled “Research (langalpha-research)”| Skill | Command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 3-statements | /3-statement-model |
Builds or repairs a linked income statement, balance sheet and cash flow model with scenarios and checks |
| catalyst-calendar | /catalyst-calendar |
Lists dated events ranked by what they can change: earnings, regulatory decisions, macro releases |
| check-deck | /check-deck |
Quality-checks an investment deck for number consistency, source coverage and language before it circulates |
| check-model | /check-model |
Audits a model someone else built and reports issues without editing it |
| company-profile | /company-profile |
Produces a one-page company profile slide, or a compact profile paragraph |
| competitive-analysis | /competitive-analysis |
Compares competitors: positioning, scorecards, moat and market share |
| comps-analysis | /comps-analysis |
Comparable company analysis: peer set, multiples and an implied value |
| dcf-model | /dcf-model |
Builds a discounted cash flow valuation in Excel with scenarios and sensitivity grids |
| earnings-analysis | /earnings-analysis |
Post-earnings update: beat or miss, EPS quality, call debate, revisions and thesis impact |
| earnings-preview | /earnings-preview |
Pre-earnings setup: expectations, what to watch, call questions and scenarios |
| idea-generation | /idea-generation |
Finds long and short candidates across a universe when no name is chosen yet |
| impact-analysis | /impact-analysis |
Traces a macro, policy or industry shock to the stocks it affects |
| initiating-coverage | /initiating-coverage |
First-time coverage of a company: research, model, valuation, charts and a 30 to 50 page report |
| market-watch | /market-watch |
Tracks live prices for the tickers in your task (needs the Market watch feature turned on) |
| model-update | /model-update |
Refreshes an existing financial model after earnings, guidance or filings |
| morning-note | /morning-note |
Daily briefing on overnight news, movers, earnings and macro events |
| portfolio-diagnosis | /portfolio-diagnosis |
Health check of your portfolio against your profile: concentration, exposure and risk fit |
| research-conventions | none | Shared evidence, judgement and market-data rules that every research deliverable follows |
| sector-overview | /sector-overview |
Sector or industry landscape report |
| thesis-tracker | /thesis-tracker |
Keeps a live thesis honest with pillar status, evidence and monitoring triggers |
| trade-pitch | /trade-pitch |
Turns finished analysis on one security into a position with scenarios, risks and monitoring |
Deliverables (langalpha-deliverables)
Section titled “Deliverables (langalpha-deliverables)”| Skill | Command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| chart-annotation | /chart-annotation |
Extra guidance for marking events and levels on charts |
| docx | none | Builds and edits Word documents, including tracked changes and comments |
| html-report | /html-report |
Writes self-contained styled HTML reports that export to PDF |
| inline-widget | none | Renders charts, dashboards and tables directly in the chat |
| interactive-dashboard | /dashboard |
Builds interactive dashboards such as stock trackers and sector heatmaps |
| none | Reads, fills and builds PDFs | |
| pptx | none | Builds and edits PowerPoint decks and checks them for layout problems |
| ui-design | none | Design reference for typography, color and layout of visual output |
| xlsx | none | Builds and edits Excel workbooks with live formulas |
Data (alternative-data)
Section titled “Data (alternative-data)”| Skill | Command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| web-scraping | /web-scraping |
Fetches web pages as markdown, HTML or text, including pages that block simple requests |
| x-api | none | Searches X posts, profiles and reply threads for sentiment and event research |
Platform (langalpha-service)
Section titled “Platform (langalpha-service)”| Skill | Command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| langalpha-doc | none | Lets the agent look up how LangAlpha itself works |
| onboarding | hidden | Runs after you save your profile: imports holdings and watchlists, then proposes first tasks |
| run-workflow | none | Runs parallel subagent pipelines from a workflow script (available when workflows are enabled) |
The bundles langalpha-market-data and yfinance carry market-data MCP servers and no skills.