Choosing the tools and skills
Give the assistant what it needs, and nothing more.
ObjectiveBy the end of this lesson, you will be able to select for an assistant only the tools and skills its role requires, and justify each exclusion.
An assistant acts through tools: searching the web, reading the Drive, creating a document, checking the agenda, drafting an email. It also draws on more than forty skills that give it know-how: analysis, writing, code, compliance, revision sheets, assessments, audio transcription, image generation. The rule is simple: the minimum necessary.
The principle of least access
Every tool left open is one more chance of error. An assistant that answers questions about expense claims has no need to send emails or book time slots. Removing these tools stops it from using them out of excess zeal and makes its behaviour more predictable.
- Describe the expected result, then the actions strictly needed to produce it.
- Match each action with the corresponding tool.
- Add the skills that improve the quality of the result, for example writing or compliance.
- Remove everything else, even if it means adding it back later once the need is confirmed.
- Open “Skills” in the sidebar to browse the ones available.
- Read the description of the skills that match your case.
- Write down the tools and skills you selected next to the assistant’s instructions.
- If your organisation restricts certain tools in the console, check with your administrator that the ones you selected are allowed.
- Test the assistant with the set of questions from the workshop.
When a skill needs tools to run, Learnya shows them to you before starting. Standard tools are covered by this approval, sensitive tools are still requested one by one. That way you always know what a skill will be able to do.