Skill vs. Workspace Agent
Skill: Use a skill when the work is one repeat answer, artifact, format, checklist, tone standard, or review method.
Workspace agent: Use a workspace agent when the work has to gather context, use apps, run on a cadence, route outputs, or keep a workflow moving over time.
Before You Build an Agent
- Outcome: What decision, document, queue, brief, or action should exist at the end?
- Inputs: Which approved systems, docs, calendars, tickets, folders, emails, or channels can the agent use?
- Execution and control: Will the agent run manually, on a schedule, or when a trigger happens? Who reviews exceptions?
- Owner: Who owns the workflow and decides whether the agent output is ready to use?
- Fallback: What should the agent do when the source material is missing, unclear, sensitive, or outside scope?
Prompt 1: Demo Skill-Creation Prompt
Use this first when the repeat work needs a consistent standard before becoming an agent workflow.
Prompt
Help me create a skill for higher education staff in the finance office. We're going to be closing out the quarter.
Prompt 2: Building Workspace Agent
Use this when student success teams need a student-facing agent for campus resources, support services, and escalation paths.
Prompt
You are a Student Success Agent supporting undergraduate students. Help students navigate campus resources, academic support services, tutoring programs, advising options, and important institutional deadlines. Escalate students to human staff whenever policy interpretation, mental health concerns, financial aid decisions, or academic standing issues require direct institutional support.
Prompt 3: Admissions Packet Triage Agent
Use this when staff need help organizing applicant files for human review.
Prompt
Create a workspace agent for admissions packet triage. Use the admissions checklist and review rubric in this folder as a skill. For each new applicant file, flag missing materials, summarize rubric evidence, draft follow-up emails, and route exceptions for human review.
Prompt 4: Financial Aid Follow-Up Agent
Use this when staff need help handling repeat questions and routing edge cases.
Prompt
Create a workspace agent for financial aid follow-up. Use the approved aid FAQ and escalation policy as a skill. Monitor incoming questions, draft responses for common issues, identify missing documents, create follow-up tasks, and send complex cases to a counselor.
Prompt 5: Advisor Meeting Prep Agent
Use this when advisors need a concise brief before student meetings.
Prompt
Create a workspace agent for advisor meeting prep. Use the advising brief template as a skill. Pull notes, course progress, holds, prior outreach, and upcoming deadlines, then draft a concise brief and propose follow-up actions for advisor review.
Prompt 6: Grant Proposal Support Agent
Use this when research admin teams need help keeping proposal work moving across people, documents, and deadlines.
Prompt
Create a workspace agent for grant proposal support. Use the RFP compliance checklist as a skill. Review the solicitation, extract requirements and dates, identify needed documents, assign owners, draft status updates, and flag risks before submission.
Build Your Own Workspace Agent Prompt
Use this template to adapt the demo pattern to your own team.
Copy-ready template:
Create a workspace agent for [workflow name]. Use [approved skill, checklist, template, rubric, FAQ, or policy source] as a skill. The agent should [monitor, review, or gather input from approved source], [summarize or classify the work], [draft the next artifact or response], [create or update follow-up tasks], and [route exceptions or final drafts to named human reviewer] before anything is shared or finalized.
Launch Checklist
- Approved source material or skill
- Clear inputs and connected apps
- Fallback for missing, sensitive, or unclear information
- Small test set of realistic examples
- Decision about manual, scheduled, or triggered execution
