Use this article to understand what Fin Skills are, how they compare to Procedures, how to create and configure your first Skill, and what's available during the closed beta.
Fin Skills are a more agentic way to configure Fin to resolve complex, multi-step queries, without step-by-step authoring. Instead of prescriptive steps, you give Fin a set of tools plus a free-text goal, and Fin decides which tools to call, in what order, and when the job is done.
Note: Fin Skills are currently in closed beta. To get access, reach out to your account team.
What is a Fin Skill?
A Skill gives Fin a set of tools — like your knowledge base, data connectors, attributes, tags, and handover targets — plus a short, free-text description of the goal for a particular process. When the Skill is triggered, Fin decides which tools to call, in what order, and when the job is done.
What a Skill is made of
Trigger — when Fin should use the Skill. Turn on any that apply: Customer sends a message (a description of what the customer says, trigger examples — "Use when" and "Do not use when", we recommend 10–20 — plus audience and channel targeting), Reach out proactively (Fin starts the conversation for people who match an audience, with up to 3 follow-ups), or Based on an event (started from the Inbox, a call, a website element click, or an API call). Event based triggers website element click and API call are currently behind a feature flag. These require an additional opt-in to access.
Guidance — the guidance categories that apply to this Skill (for example, Communication style or Escalation guidance). Selecting a category means the relevant workspace guidance rules will shape how Fin behaves within the Skill. Guidance has been moved from the main Skill definition to settings.
Available tools — data connectors Fin can call; content (internal articles, public articles, and snippets); handover targets (teams, teammates, or reusable workflows); attributes Fin may read; tags; and Procedures. Fin determines when to use these tools based on the instructions you provide.
Instructions — a free-form prompt where you describe the Skill's goal, any added guidance, and other context for Fin to follow
How to configure a Fin Skill
Skills can be created, edited, and tested using Operator (recommended) or manually in the product.
Using Operator (recommended)
The fastest way to create, test, and deploy a Fin Skill is with Operator. You can get a first version working and ready to test within 15–20 minutes.
Explicitly ask Operator to create a Fin Skill and describe the goal you want it to handle.
Note: During the beta, Operator will only suggest Procedures by default — you need to explicitly ask it to create a Skill. Operator will draft the Skill in Fin AI Agent > Train > Skills, ready for you to review and test before setting it live.
Manually
Go to Fin AI Agent > Train > Skills and select + New Skill.
Add a trigger and any relevant audience or channel targeting.
Under Trigger, turn on any of the three options that apply — they're independent, so you can combine them:
Customer sends a message — the default. Describe what the customer says to trigger the Skill, add trigger examples ("Use when" and "Do not use when" — we recommend 10–20), and set the audience and channels.
Reach out proactively — toggle this on in the top-right corner to have Fin start the conversation for people who match an audience, instead of waiting for the customer to message first.
Audience — who Fin reaches out to.
Frequency — reach out once, or again when someone re-matches the audience.
Follow up if they go quiet — up to a set number of follow-ups, with a minimum gap between them.
Note: If you'd like to use Reach out proactively, please reach out to the team.
Based on an event — starts the Skill from the Inbox, a call, a website element click, or an API call, instead of from a customer message or proactive outreach.
This is optional: click + Add under Based on events and choose an event type: Inbox trigger (lets a teammate manually start the Skill from the Inbox), Website element click (starts the Skill when a customer clicks a specified element on your website), or API call (starts the Skill via the Intercom API).
For Website element click and API call triggers, Fin writes the initial outreach message to the customer — the same behavior as Reach out proactively.
Let Fin continue after this skill ends — applies to Reach out proactively and Based on an event (not a customer message). Configure what Fin can still do after the Skill ends (use content, follow guidance, detect attributes), and where to hand off if unresolved: choose a Team or Workflow, and set what Fin says to the customer first.
Next, select the guidance categories you want to apply to this Skill.
Add the tools you want Fin to use. Under Available tools, add any of the following:
Data connectors: Live lookups from external systems (e.g. order status, account data)
Content: Specific articles or snippets Fin can cite
Handover targets: Teams, teammates, or workflows Fin can route to
Attributes: User, company, or conversation data Fin can read
Tags: Tags Fin can apply to the conversation
Procedures: A step-based procedure Fin can switch to
Events: An action the customer has taken in the product
Tip: Toggle on Add note (under Built-in tools) to let Fin leave a note for the team in the instructions.
Add your instructions. In the Instructions field, describe the Skill's goal in plain language — what Fin should do, how it should behave, and any guardrails or edge cases. Write it as guidance, not a numbered sequence; Fin decides the moment-to-moment steps itself. Provide as much information as possible in the instructions. Any information not provided may be incorrectly inferred by Fin.
Use @ to reference any tool you've added directly in the instructions — type @ to search and insert by name. This tells Fin exactly when and how to use it.
A strong instruction covers:
Purpose — what customer intent this Skill handles
Guidance — how Fin should approach it (tone, what to gather, what to avoid)
Tool usage — when to call a @data connector, hand off to @a team, or cite @content
Edge cases — what to do if an action fails or the customer's request is out of scope
Click Save to save your Skill as a draft. It won't be active for customers until you set it live.
How to test and deploy a Skill
Test with Simulations
Skills work well with Simulations (automated test conversations that validate how Fin handles different scenarios). You can ask Operator to create and run simulations, then iterate based on the results. Since Skills are built around a goal, not a fixed set of steps, it often takes a few rounds to get them right. Even well-written instructions can miss a scenario. Test with Simulations to find gaps, refine your instructions, and test again to see how Fin performs across a variety of scenarios. You can also create Simulations manually.
Deploy
Once you're happy with your Skill, set it live. If you want to deploy incrementally, you can use Releases.
What Fin can do within a Skill
When a Skill is triggered, Fin executes the skill autonomously. Once the Skill ends, Fin hands the conversation back to its default mode of answering questions from your knowledge base and other configured content — we call this Fin's general information agent, as distinct from the goal-driven Skills Agent described above. Within a Skill, Fin can:
Plan and track its own progress against the objective
Search content you've provided in the Skill
Call any data connectors you've made available
Message the customer, including asking follow-up questions
Hand off to a configured handover target, or escalate generically to a human
Declare the Skill complete and return the conversation to Fin
Search your knowledge base if the customer asks an informational question outside the Skill's scope
Generate Fin thoughts explaining what it's doing and why
Features available during the closed beta
The following table shows which Fin Skills features are available, and which are coming soon. Note that reporting isn't available yet — you won't be able to track Skill performance until this is released.
Feature | Status |
Operator creation, editing and testing | Available |
Trigger, trigger examples | Available |
Based on an event | Available |
Trigger via button or API | Available |
Reach out proactively | Available |
Channel and audience targeting | Available |
Agentic switching to other skills and procedures | Available |
Simulations | Available |
Manual preview | Available |
Data connectors | Available |
Handoff to team, teammate, and reusable workflow | Available |
Tags | Available |
Read attributes | Available |
Workspace guidance applying to Skills | Available |
Switch to another procedure | Available |
Add a note | Available |
Human in the loop | Coming soon |
Agent in the loop | Coming soon |
Update attributes | Available |
Reporting | Coming soon |
Choosing between a Skill and a Procedure
A Skill and a Procedure are two different ways to configure Fin, and we treat them as complementary rather than competing — you can use both in the same workspace. A Skill gives Fin a goal and a set of tools and lets Fin decide the path; a Procedure gives Fin a fixed, step-by-step script to follow. Both guide Fin in handling a conversation, but they suit different situations.
Here's how to choose.
At a glance
| Skills | Procedures |
Best for | Open-ended goals where the conversation could go in different directions | Specific, well-defined cases that follow a set path |
How you set it up | Describe the goal and give Fin the tools it needs | Write out the steps Fin should follow, in order |
Setup effort | Lower. Less detail needed | Higher. You write out each step |
Behavior | More flexible, less predictable | More consistent, closer to a script |
Skills
A Skill (introduced above) tells Fin what you want to achieve and lets Fin work out how to get there. Because you aren't scripting every step, Skills are quicker to set up.
Use a skill when:
You aren't sure what the customer will ask for or how the conversation will end.
You have a clear goal but no fixed path to it.
You want Fin to handle a conversation that may change direction partway through.
The outcome needs judgment and dynamic reasoning, like troubleshooting where the path is unclear.
There are many possible causes, and a Procedure would need a branch for every one.
What to know:
Fin has your full instructions and tools in view for the whole conversation, so it can respond sensibly when a customer changes topic or raises more than one issue.
Fin can move between different skills as the conversation evolves.
Because Fin decides how to reach the goal, its approach will vary more from one conversation to the next.
Procedures
Unlike a Skill, a Procedure is a step-by-step walkthrough for a specific scenario — Fin follows the steps you write, in order, rather than deciding its own path. If you already have a written, step-by-step process your team follows, you can give it to a Procedure and Fin will carry it out.
Use a procedure when:
The process is well-defined and should be done the same way each time.
You need Fin to follow a script closely.
The process is fixed, repeatable, and standardized.
What to know:
Procedures work best when the customer stays on the expected path.
Fin focuses on the part of the procedure it's currently working through rather than holding every step in mind at once. If a customer brings up something that relates to a different part of the procedure, Fin may not have that context.
Procedures are less suited to conversations where the customer raises several issues.
FAQ
What should each Skill cover?
What should each Skill cover?
Each Skill should be focused on one problem. Rather than putting everything into one large Skill, create several smaller ones, each built around a single goal.
What happens if a customer raises more than one issue in the same conversation?
What happens if a customer raises more than one issue in the same conversation?
Several Skills can match at once, and they work in tandem rather than one at a time. Depending on what the customer asks, Fin draws on all the relevant Skills together, switching between them or combining steps as needed.
Say you want Fin to handle subscription cancellations and process refunds. Each would be its own separate Skill. If a customer reaches out asking to cancel their subscription and get a refund, both Skills match, and Fin uses them together to resolve the customer's request.
Multiple Skills ran in my conversation, why did only one successfully finish?
Multiple Skills ran in my conversation, why did only one successfully finish?
One Skill triggers the agent. The Skills Agent then pulls in additional skills as needed. Whichever Skill matched initially will be the Skill that we see an end event for. The Skills triggered along the way won't have a named end step.
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