Skill Center
Skill Center is the unified skill management platform in STAROps. You can browse and install skills provided by STAROps and Alibaba Cloud services for tasks such as resource queries, inspection diagnostics, and O&M operations. You can also create custom skills to reuse and share O&M workflows across digital employees under your Alibaba Cloud account.
Skills in Skill Center follow a two-step activation model: install a skill, and then mount it to a digital employee. A digital employee can use a skill only after the skill is both installed and mounted.
Prerequisites
Before you use Skill Center, make sure that the following conditions are met:
You have registered an Alibaba Cloud account and logged on to the STAROps console.
You have the required permissions for Skill Center management, including permissions to browse, search, install, and create skills. For more information about how to configure permissions, see Permission Configuration.
Access Skill Center
Log on to the STAROps console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Skills.
On the Skill Center page, use the tabs at the top to switch between different views:
Marketplace: Displays all available skills.
Featured: Displays curated skills recommended by Alibaba Cloud.
Custom: Displays skills that you created.
Browse and install skills
Browse skills
On the Marketplace or Featured tab, you can find skills by using the following methods:
Enter a skill name or display name in the search box at the top of the page.
Use the All drop-down list to filter skills by status: All, Not Installed, or Installed.
Use the pagination controls at the bottom of the skill list to browse additional pages.
Install a skill from Marketplace
On the Marketplace or Featured tab, find the target skill that is not installed (no Installed badge displayed), and then click the skill card to open the skill details page.
On the skill details page, view the skill source, update time, category, description, and full skill content.
Click Install in the upper-right corner to install the skill.
After the installation is complete, click the Mounting Management tab on the skill details page to mount the skill to digital employees. For instructions, see Associated employees.
Install an featured skill
Officially recommended skills are provided by Alibaba Cloud. Clicking a skill card takes you directly to the process of adding it to a digital employee.
Install a Skill
Manage installed skills
View skill details
On the Marketplace tab, click the card of an installed skill to open the skill details page. The details page provides the following tabs:
Overview: View basic skill information such as source, update time, category, and description, and version comparison information between the current version and the latest version.
Skill Content: View the complete content of the skill. A file tree on the left shows all files included in the skill. The content of the selected file is displayed on the right.
Mounting Management: Manage the association between the skill and digital employees. For instructions, see Associated employees.
Update an installed skill
Skills installed from marketplace do not update automatically. When a new version is available, a version update notification is displayed on the skill details page. You can manually update the skill on the Overview tab of the skill details page.
Uninstall a skill
On the skill details page, click Uninstall in the upper-right corner to uninstall the skill. After uninstallation, the skill is removed from your installed list and no longer appears when you filter by Installed. The skill remains available in marketplace and can be viewed when you filter by All or Not Installed. You can reinstall the skill at any time.
Before you uninstall a skill, make sure that the skill is not associated with any digital employees. If the skill is mounted to digital employees, remove all digital employees on the Associated employees tab first, and then uninstall the skill. After uninstallation, digital employees that had the skill mounted can no longer use it. If a digital employee has a running long-term task (Mission) that depends on the skill, the task (Task) may fail.
Associated employees
After a skill is installed, you must mount it to a specific digital employee before the digital employee can use it. Mounting management configures the usage scope of a skill and controls which digital employees can use the skill.
Add a digital employee
On the skill details page, click the Associated employees tab.
In the Associated employees area, enter a digital employee name in the search box to filter the drop-down list, and then select the target digital employee.
Click Associated to add the selected digital employee to the usage scope.
After the digital employee is added, it appears in the usage scope list.
Manage mounted digital employees
In the digital employee list, you can perform the following operations on mounted digital employees:
Enable/Disable: Toggle the enabled state to control whether the digital employee can use the skill.
Remove: Click Remove to remove the digital employee from the usage scope. After removal, the digital employee can no longer use the skill.
Custom
Create a custom skill
Custom skills are enterprise-level skills that you create. After creation, all users with Skill Center management permissions under the Alibaba Cloud account can access and use them. Unlike skills installed from marketplace or the Featured tab, custom skills do not require an installation step. After creation, you can directly associate them with digital employees.
After you create a custom skill, it is visible to all users under the Alibaba Cloud account and can be mounted for use. Make sure that the skill content has passed a security review before you create it.
On the Skill Center page, click the Custom tab.
Click New Skill in the upper-right corner.
On the create skill page that appears, configure the following parameters:
Parameter
Type
Required
Description
Example
Skill Name
String
Yes
The unique identifier of the skill, used to distinguish between skills in the system.
my-ops-skill
Display Name
String
Yes
The name displayed for the skill in the console.
O&M Inspection Skill
Description
String
No
The purpose description of the skill to help users understand its functionality and applicable scenarios.
Periodically check the health status of ECS instances
Skill Design
String
Yes
The complete instruction content of the skill, written in Markdown format. You can manually enter the content or upload a local file. Skill Design includes not only the instructions in SKILL.md but also supports adding reference files and scripts in the references/ and scripts/ directories.
-
Click Add Now to complete the creation.
Manage custom skills
On the Custom tab, click the card of the target skill to open the skill details page.
Skill content and version management
The skill details page provides the following tabs:
Files: View and edit the complete content of the skill. For information about the editing and publishing workflow, see Draft management.
Associated employees: Manage the association between the skill and digital employees. For instructions, see Associated employees.
Versions: View the historical version information of the skill.
Associate digital employees
After you create a custom skill, you must associate it with specific digital employees before they can use it. The association steps are the same as the steps for adding a digital employee described in Associated employees. The following describes the differences for custom skills:
On the skill details page, click the Associated employees tab.
Follow the steps described in Associated employees to add a digital employee.
After the digital employee is added, in addition to the Enable/Disable and Remove operations, custom skills also support the Enable/Disable Draft feature, which controls whether the digital employee uses the draft version of the skill.
Before you enable a draft, you must create a draft first. After you enable a draft, the digital employee uses the draft content instead of the published version.
After the association is complete, you can view the skill on the Installed tab of the skill management page for the digital employee. For more information, see Skill Management.
Draft management
Custom skills support the draft feature. You can create a draft version, test and verify it on specific digital employees, and then publish it as the official version.
Edit a draft
On the skill details page, click Edit to open the draft editing page.
Modify the skill content, including the skill name, display name, description, and skill design.
After you finish editing, choose from the following actions:
Save Draft: Save the current changes as a draft version without publishing. The draft version takes effect only for digital employees with the Use Draft option enabled.
Publish Draft: Publish the draft version as the official version, which takes effect for all associated digital employees.
Delete Draft: Delete the current draft version and revert to the previous official version.
Cancel: Discard the current changes and return to the skill details page.
Draft testing workflow
Make sure that the target digital employee has the skill in an Enabled state. The draft feature is available only when the skill is enabled.
On the Usage Scope tab of the skill details page, find the target digital employee.
Toggle the Use Draft switch to the enabled state for the digital employee.
Test the draft version of the skill content in the intelligent conversation of the digital employee.
After the test passes, return to the skill details page, click Edit, and then select Publish Draft to publish the draft as the official version.
After publishing, the official version takes effect for all associated digital employees.
The draft version takes effect only for digital employees with the Use Draft option enabled. After you publish the draft, all associated digital employees use the official version.
FAQ
Why can't a digital employee use a skill after installation?
After a skill is installed, you must mount it to a specific digital employee before the digital employee can use it. Go to the Mounting Management tab on the skill details page and add the digital employee. For instructions, see Associated employees.
What do I do if I receive the error "Skill is associated with digital employees" when uninstalling a skill?
Before you uninstall a skill, you must remove the association between the skill and all digital employees. Go to the Mounting Management tab on the skill details page, remove each associated digital employee, and then perform the uninstall operation.
What is the difference between custom skills and skills created within a digital employee?
Difference | Custom Skills (Skill Center) | Skills within Digital Employee |
Creation location | Skill Center > Custom Skills tab | Digital Employee details page > Skill Management tab |
Usage scope | Available to all digital employees under the Alibaba Cloud account | Available only to the current digital employee |
Draft management | Supports the draft feature for testing before publishing | Not supported |
Version management | Supports version history | Supports version history |
What is the relationship between a draft version and an official version?
A draft version is an editable copy of the official version. After you enable a draft, the associated digital employee uses the draft content instead of the official version, which allows you to test on a specific digital employee. After the test passes, you can publish the draft as the official version, which takes effect for all digital employees. If the draft contains errors, you can delete the draft to revert to the previous official version.
After a skill is updated, do mounted digital employees automatically use the new version?
No. Skills installed from Skill Market display a version update notification but do not update automatically. You can manually update the skill on the Overview tab of the skill details page.
If I remove a digital employee from mounting management, is the skill itself deleted?
No. The Remove operation in mounting management only removes the association between the skill and the specific digital employee. The skill itself remains in your installed list. To permanently remove the skill, use the Uninstall feature.
Why doesn't the digital employee take effect immediately after adding a skill?
After a skill is added to a digital employee, it takes a few minutes for the runtime environment to synchronize the new skill configuration. During this period, the digital employee may temporarily be unable to recognize the newly added skill. This is normal behavior during backend configuration synchronization. Please wait a moment before starting a new session to use the skill normally.