Cola Skill
Discover and install skills from the Cola Skill site (colaskill.com) — how single skills and collections install, how failures surface, and how to manage and toggle what's installed.
Click Skills in the app bar to open the skill center. The first tab, Cola Skill, opens colaskill.com — the skill marketplace, used right inside the app. What skills exist and what each one does lives on the site; this page covers only Cola's side: installing, and managing what's installed.
The skill center has two more tabs: Installed manages skills on this machine, and Channels manages channel connections.
Installing skills
Open an entry on the site to install it. An installed skill takes effect from the next turn on — a task already running can't use it. If you spot something you want to use right away, you can also invoke it straight from its entry; Cola takes you back to the composer with the invocation prepared.
Entries come in two kinds with different install behavior:
| Type | Install behavior |
|---|---|
| Single skill | Installs that one |
| Collection | Never installed wholesale; you review the members and install the ones you picked |
Collections deserve attention:
- When you ask Cola to pick for you, it weighs the members' descriptions against your memory and recent work, and installs a small, genuinely useful set; if you want everything, say "install all of them". A single selection installs at most 12 skills.
- The result lists exactly which skills were installed. Installing 3 members doesn't mean the collection is done — the site distinguishes "installed" from "partially installed".
When an install fails
Failures show the real error; a failed install is never presented as a success. The common ones:
| Error | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Skill package must contain exactly one SKILL.md | The entry is registered as a single skill package, but the package contains multiple skill documents | A structural problem with the entry. Install its individually identifiable members instead, or report the entry |
Skill package must contain SKILL.md | The package has no skill document at all | Same — don't work around it by copying files manually |
Failed to download skill from … | The download failed, or the source doesn't point at a directory containing SKILL.md | Check network and proxy; report the entry if the source is wrong |
| The page never loads | The skill site didn't load | Click Reload; if it keeps failing, check network and proxy |
When installing several at once, the ones that succeed are installed normally and the failures are listed separately — partial success is never reported as full success.
Don't work around a failed install by copying skill files into the skills directory by hand: that bypasses the source record, so later you won't know where it came from and it can't be updated properly.
Managing installed skills
Switch to the Installed tab. Skills are grouped by category (productivity, research, writing, development, integration, system, other, personal), with site installs grouped by the collection they came from; those not from any collection go under "Single skills". You can search, and each entry shows a name, a description, and a toggle.
What turning a skill off means: Cola stops reaching for it on its own, but it stays in the / menu, so you can still invoke it by hand. Turning it off is reversible at any time. When you have upwards of a hundred skills enabled, Cola offers to trim the list — or just say "help me trim my enabled skills".
Where skill files live:
| Source | Location |
|---|---|
| Installed from the skill site | ~/.cola/skills/ |
| Shipped with Cola | ~/.cola/resources/skills/ |
| Shared cross-agent directory | ~/.agents/skills/ |
Site installs record their source, slug, version, and collection. When two skills share a name only one takes effect, resolved top-down in the table above — a skill you installed wins over a shipped skill of the same name.
Built-in capabilities
The top of the Installed tab shows a set of built-in capabilities — creation, search, and automation tools included with Cola that require no installation.
| Capability | / command | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Image generation | /image | Turn a written idea or reference image into a new picture |
| Podcast generation | /podcast | Turn articles, notes, or research into a two-host audio conversation |
| Text to speech | /tts | Turn text into natural, playable audio |
| Video generation | /video | Describe a scene in words and generate an AI video |
| Explainer generation | /explainer | Turn complex material into a visual, easy-to-follow explainer |
| Browser automation | /browse | Let Cola open websites, click controls, and fill in information for you |
| App builder | /build-app | Build and deploy a web app with a shareable link |
| Web search | /search | Search the live web, compare sources, and return a linked summary |
| Vision understanding | /vision | Upload an image or video and answer questions about it |
Each capability can be invoked with its / command or by describing what you need in the conversation — Cola picks the right capability on its own. Credit cost is shown on each capability card; refer to the in-app display for current pricing.
Built-in capability generation calls are billed separately by actual usage, independent of ordinary model calls (see the media generation billing section in Account, Usage, and Models).
Permissions and safety boundaries
- A skill carries no permissions of its own. Its steps are executed by Cola, so what it may read, whether it may use the network, and which actions need confirmation are all still governed by Tasks and permissions.
- Skill content is text written by someone else, often from a third-party repository. Read the name, description, and source before installing — especially skills that want credentials, file uploads, or outbound messages.
- If a skill behaves badly, turn it off on the Installed tab.
FAQ
I installed a skill and Cola isn't using it. First check whether you're still in the same turn — skills take effect from the next one; then check it's toggled on in the Installed tab. If you're sure you want it, type / and pick it directly.
What if I install the same skill twice? An identical skill that's already installed is reused rather than re-downloaded.
Where do I see where a skill came from? Grouped by collection on the Installed tab; the fuller record lives in the install metadata inside the skill's directory.
A skill's resources are missing or incompatible? It usually shows up as a task failing mid-way with a file-not-found error. Reinstall the skill; if that doesn't help, turn it off and attach the day's logs when you report it.
Can I write my own skill? Yes. Tell Cola what kind of skill you want and it will build it out with you.
Related
- Tasks and permissions — the real permission boundary while a skill runs
- Troubleshooting — what to include when reporting a problem
Platforms: macOS and Windows desktop. Status: stable.
Awareness
Awareness is the trace your conversations leave on Cola — the imprints it writes at night, and the moments it thinks of you on its own. Where to read imprints, and how proactive check-ins happen.
Smart Alarms
Hand a future action to Cola in one sentence — it remembers, fires on time, does the work, and delivers the result where you asked.