# Cursor Features and Practical Usage
🧩 Tired of re-explaining the same multi-step workflow to your agent every single time? Cursor Skills let you package repeatable workflows so the agent just knows how to do them.
🏷️ Title: Reusable Workflows (SKILL.md)
🔗 URL:
📘 Overview
Skills are portable, version-controlled packages that teach agents how to perform domain-specific tasks. They bundle scripts, templates, and reference material that the agent runs through its available tools. They are the evolution of Rules: agents can apply them automatically based on context, or you can invoke them explicitly as slash commands.
⚙️ How It Works
Each skill is centered on a `SKILL.md` file whose leading YAML frontmatter defines its behavior.
・`name`: a lowercase identifier that must match the parent folder name (required)
・`description`: what the skill is for and when it applies; the agent reads this to decide whether to use it (required)
・`paths`: glob patterns that scope the skill to matching files (optional)
・`disable-model-invocation`: set to `true` to make it slash-only, included only when you type `/skill-name` (optional)
Discovery is hierarchical: project skills live in `.cursor/skills/` (or `.agents/skills/`), and global ones in `~/.cursor/skills/`. The root is walked recursively, so nested subdirectories are found too. A skill folder can also ship `scripts/` (executable code), `references/` (docs loaded on demand), and `assets/` (templates or images).
🛠️ Practical Usage
For example, in `.cursor/skills/api-endpoint/SKILL.md` set the frontmatter `name` to `api-endpoint`, a `description` of the workflow, and `paths` scoped to `src/api/**/*.ts`, then write the steps in the body (register the route, validate input with a zod schema, always add tests).
If you do not want automatic invocation, add `disable-model-invocation: true` and call it explicitly by typing `/api-endpoint` in Agent chat.
💡 Use Cases
In a monorepo, placing a `.cursor/skills/` folder inside each app automatically scopes those skills to files in that directory, so you can skip `paths` entirely. Share release procedures, migration scripts, or code-review checklists so the whole team works the same way. You can convert existing assets with the built-in `/migrate-to-skills` (Cursor 2.4): "Apply Intelligently" rules (`alwaysApply: false`) become skills, and slash commands become skills with `disable-model-invocation: true`.
⚠️ Caveats
A skill's identity comes from the folder containing `SKILL.md`, not any parent category. The old `globs` field is deprecated; use `paths` now. `/migrate-to-skills` does not migrate `alwaysApply: true` rules or user-level rules, so those need manual handling.
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