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Writing Good A2A Skill Descriptions

How the skills in an Agent Card determine whether client agents delegate the right work to your agent.

Editorial team 1 min read

Client agents decide whether to delegate to your agent largely from its skill descriptions. They deserve care.

Be Specific

"Handles finance" is vague. "Checks expense claims against company policy and returns approval status with reasons" is clear.

State Scope and Limits

What's in and out of scope? Which regions, currencies, date ranges or product lines?

Give Examples

Example requests help client agents match tasks to skills.

Declare Formats

State accepted input types — text, files, structured data — and output types. Document the schema for structured data.

Mention Requirements

Note what information the agent needs, such as an employee ID or order number, so clients include it up front.

Keep Skills Distinct

Overlapping skills confuse selection. Each should have a clear purpose.

Test Delegation

Try realistic requests with client agents and check they choose your skill correctly — and don't choose it for unrelated tasks.

Maintain

Update descriptions as capabilities change; stale cards cause failed delegations.

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