Built-in skills

Specialized instruction sets that Lightdash AI agents load on demand to handle focused tasks like editing dashboards in the UI.

Lightdash AI agents ship with built-in skills — specialized instruction sets the agent loads on demand when a request matches a skill’s purpose. Skills keep the base system prompt small and let the agent pull in deep, task-specific guidance only when it needs it.

You don’t install or configure built-in skills. They’re packaged with Lightdash and available to every AI agent automatically.

How skills work

When you message an AI agent, it sees a short list of available skills (name and one-line description). If your request matches a skill, the agent:

1. Calls loadSkill to fetch the full instructions for that skill.
2. Optionally calls loadSkillResource to pull a specific reference document the skill points to.
3. Follows the skill’s instructions to complete your task.

You’ll see both calls appear in the chat as tool-call chips, so you can tell which skill the agent picked up and which reference it consulted.

Available skills

developing-in-lightdash

Use this skill to read or edit the dashboard you currently have open in the UI. The agent inspects the live dashboard editor state, builds the smallest possible change, and applies it in place — no download, edit, upload loop required.

Trigger it with requests like:

• “Add a filter for the last 30 days to this dashboard.”
• “Move the revenue tile to the top row.”
• “What tiles are on this dashboard right now?”

When the skill is loaded, the agent uses the frontendAction tool with dashboard.read to inspect state and dashboard.edit with an RFC 6902 JSON Patch to apply changes. The skill also exposes a dashboard-reference resource that documents tile types, layout rules, and filter configuration — the agent loads it on demand when it needs the full schema.

The developing-in-lightdash skill operates on the in-memory dashboard editor state. Your changes aren’t saved until you click Save in the dashboard editor, so you can review the agent’s edits before committing them.

When to use built-in skills vs. other workflows

Task	Use
Edit the dashboard you have open right now	Built-in developing-in-lightdash skill (just ask the agent)
Bulk edit many dashboards or charts at once	Editing dashboards with agents (download / edit / upload)
Build or maintain your dbt semantic layer with an external coding agent	Agent skills for coding assistants

FAQs

Do I need to enable built-in skills?

No. They’re available to every Lightdash AI agent out of the box.

Can I add my own built-in skills?

Not today. Built-in skills are packaged with Lightdash. If you need agent-specific guidance, use agent instructions or agent memory.

Why do I see loadSkill and loadSkillResource in the chat?

Those are the tool calls the agent makes to fetch a skill’s instructions and reference material. Seeing them means the agent recognized your request as a good fit for a specialized workflow.