How to Package Your Business Knowledge for AI

In our previous post on SKILL.md and agent discoverability, we explained why businesses need to be findable by AI agents. The response was clear: business owners get the "why." What they want to know is "how."

This is that guide. No code required. If you can write a document, you can package your business knowledge for AI.

What "Packaging Knowledge" Actually Means

Every business has expertise that lives in people's heads. The accountant who knows which deductions apply to which entity types. The contractor who knows the permit sequence for a kitchen remodel. The law firm that has a specific intake process for new clients.

Right now, that knowledge only works when a human applies it. An AI agent can't use it because it doesn't know it exists.

Packaging your knowledge means writing it down in a format that AI agents can read, understand, and act on. The format is called SKILL.md, and it's supported by both Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT). You write it once, and every AI agent that encounters it can use your expertise.

The Format Is Simpler Than You Think

A skill is a folder with one required file: SKILL.md. That file has two parts.

Part 1: The header. This is your elevator pitch — a name and a short description of what the skill does. AI agents read this first to decide if your knowledge is relevant to what they're working on.

Part 2: The instructions. This is the detailed guide. Step-by-step processes, rules, examples, and anything the AI agent needs to actually use your knowledge.

That's it. The rest is optional. You can add scripts for tasks that need exact execution, reference documents for deep detail, and templates for consistent output. But the core is just structured text.

A Real Example: A Dental Practice

Let's say you run a dental practice. Your front desk team handles dozens of calls a day, and they follow a specific process for each type of call. A new patient calls with a toothache. An existing patient needs to reschedule. An insurance company calls about a claim.

Your staff knows this process because they've done it thousands of times. But when you hire someone new, it takes weeks to train them. And if you wanted an AI agent to help with scheduling or triage, it would have no idea how your practice works.

Here's what a skill for your practice might look like:

Header:

Name: dental-patient-intake
Description: Patient intake and scheduling process for a dental practice.
Use when handling new patient calls, appointment scheduling, insurance
verification, or emergency triage.

Instructions (simplified):

## New Patient Calls
1. Collect: name, phone, email, insurance provider, reason for visit
2. If emergency (pain, swelling, broken tooth): offer same-day if available,
   next morning if not
3. If routine (cleaning, checkup): offer next available hygienist slot
4. Send new patient forms via email within 5 minutes of call

## Insurance Verification
1. Check provider against accepted list (see references/insurance-list.md)
2. If accepted: confirm coverage and co-pay estimate
3. If not accepted: explain out-of-pocket costs, offer payment plan info

## Rescheduling
1. Check reason: if medical, waive any cancellation notice requirement
2. If within 24 hours: note as late cancel in patient record
3. Offer three alternative times

Nothing in that example requires programming knowledge. It's the same process your best front desk person follows — written down clearly enough that an AI agent can follow it too.

The Three Things That Make a Skill Work

1. A Specific Description

The description is the most important line in the entire file. It's what AI agents read to decide whether your skill is relevant. If your description is vague, the agent will never load the rest.

Bad: "Handles dental office tasks."

Good: "Patient intake and scheduling process for a dental practice. Use when handling new patient calls, appointment scheduling, insurance verification, or emergency triage."

The good version tells the agent exactly what situations trigger this skill. An agent helping someone schedule a dental appointment will match on "appointment scheduling." An agent triaging an emergency will match on "emergency triage."

2. Clear Steps, Not Marketing Copy

AI agents don't respond to persuasion. They respond to structure. Your skill instructions should read like a process manual, not a brochure.

Every step should answer: what do I do, in what order, and what do I do if something goes wrong?

Use numbered lists for sequential processes. Use bullet points for options. Use conditional language ("If X, then Y") for decision points. Be specific about boundaries — what this skill covers and what it doesn't.

3. Progressive Detail

Think of your skill like a conversation. The header is the introduction. The instructions are the working session. Reference documents are the deep dives for edge cases.

This layered approach matters because AI agents have limited attention — like a human reading a long document, they work best when they can get the overview first and dig into details only when needed.

Put common tasks and the 80% cases in the main instructions. Put the edge cases, detailed policies, and reference tables in separate files that the agent loads only when it needs them.

What Types of Knowledge Should You Package?

Not everything needs to be a skill. Focus on knowledge that meets two criteria: it's used repeatedly, and it requires specific expertise.

Good candidates:

Client onboarding processes
Service pricing and scoping rules
Quality control checklists
Compliance requirements specific to your industry
Vendor selection criteria
Common customer questions and accurate answers
Report formats and data requirements

Not worth the effort:

One-time decisions that won't repeat
Highly creative work that changes every time
Simple information that's already publicly available
Anything that requires physical presence or human judgment calls

The Five-Step Process

Step 1: Pick One Workflow

Don't try to package your entire business at once. Pick the one process that eats the most time or causes the most mistakes. For most businesses, it's either client intake, quoting/estimating, or recurring reporting.

Step 2: Write It Like You're Training a New Employee

Imagine your best employee is leaving tomorrow, and you need to write down everything they know about this one process. What would you include? What assumptions would you spell out? What mistakes would you warn them about?

That document is your skill's instructions. Write it in plain language, with numbered steps and clear decision points.

Step 3: Identify Your Reference Material

What supporting documents does someone need to do this job? Price lists, policy documents, approved vendor lists, compliance checklists, template formats? These become your reference files — separate documents the AI loads when it needs specific details.

Step 4: Write the Description

This feels like it should be step one, but it's easier after you've written the instructions. Now you know exactly what the skill covers. Write a description under 1,024 characters that answers: what does this skill do, and when should an AI agent use it?

Include the specific trigger situations. "Use when" is the most important phrase in your description.

Step 5: Test It

Ask an AI agent to use your skill on a real scenario. Did it follow the steps correctly? Did it handle edge cases? Did it know when to check the reference documents?

Refine based on what actually happens, not what you assume will happen. Most skills need two or three rounds of adjustment before they're reliable.

What This Costs

Creating a basic skill takes an afternoon. It's free — the format is open and supported by both major AI platforms.

The time investment is in the thinking, not the technology. Writing down a process that lives in your head requires concentrated effort. But that effort pays off in three ways:

AI agents can now use your expertise. Every agent that encounters your skill can apply your knowledge without you being in the room.
Training gets easier. The same document that teaches an AI agent also teaches new employees.
Your process gets better. Writing it down forces you to examine it. Most businesses find inefficiencies they didn't know they had.

For complex skills with scripts and extensive reference documents, working with a technology partner can cut the creation time from weeks to days and ensure the skill is optimized for how AI agents actually process information.

Where Skills Are Heading

There are already over 20,000 skills on the community marketplace. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are investing heavily in the ecosystem. The Linux Foundation governs the underlying protocol (MCP) that connects AI agents to external tools.

This isn't a trend that might happen. The infrastructure is built and growing. The question for your business is whether you'll be part of it.

The businesses that package their expertise now get discovered first. The same compounding advantage that early SEO adopters had — once you're established, you're hard to displace.

Start Today

You don't need to build something complex. You need to start with one workflow, write it down clearly, and test it with an AI agent.

If your description is specific, your instructions are clear, and your process is documented — you've created something most of your competitors don't have: a way for AI agents to find you, understand what you do, and put your expertise to work.

That's not a technical project. It's a business advantage.

If you want help packaging your business knowledge for AI, check out our AI integration services. We build custom skills that turn your expertise into something AI agents can use — and we explain every step in plain English.

Blue Octopus Technology helps businesses package their expertise for the AI agent era. From SKILL.md creation to full workflow automation — let's talk about what your business knows.