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Skills

Skills are the main way to configure AI Assistants in BetterTouchTool. Instead of manually picking many individual tools, choose skills that describe what the assistant should be able to do.

A skill can provide:

  • system instructions
  • allowed tools
  • context items
  • subagents
  • thinking settings
  • example prompts
  • file access limits

Active, Optional, Or Off​

In AI Configuration -> Tools & Context -> Manage Skills..., each skill can be set to:

  • Active: Loaded whenever the assistant starts.
  • Optional: Available on demand. The assistant can request it when the task needs it.
  • Off: Not available to that assistant.

Use Active for the assistant's normal job. Use Optional for powerful or occasional capabilities such as plugin creation, shell access, or background computer use.

Built-In Skills​

  • General Assistant: Writing, questions, selected text, web lookup, and everyday help.
  • BTT Expert: BetterTouchTool documentation, triggers, actions, snippets, and configuration changes.
  • Computer Use: Frontmost visible app control with screenshots, accessibility, keyboard, mouse, windows, and menu bar tools.
  • Background Computer Use: Targeted background window control without activating the app.
  • Desktop Automation: General macOS automation using BTT's desktop tools.
  • Floating Menu & Widget Creator: Floating menus and Swift widget plugins.
  • BTT Plugin Creator / Editor: JSON action plugins and native Swift plugins.
  • Code Assistant: File editing, shell commands, diagnostics, and project work.
  • Research Assistant: Web research, document reading, and memory.
  • Safari Automation: Browser automation and page inspection.
  • Anthropic / OpenAI Computer Use: Provider-native computer-use tools when using the matching provider.

Custom Skills​

You can create, duplicate, edit, and import skills from the skill manager. Custom BTT skills are stored here:

~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool/AI/Skills/custom

BTT can also load OpenClaw-style SKILL.md folders from:

~/Library/Application Support/BetterTouchTool/AI/Skills/openclaw
~/.openclaw/skills

Practical Tips​

  • Prefer one or two focused skills over a large collection of unrelated skills.
  • Keep risky skills optional unless they are central to the assistant.
  • Create task-specific assistants rather than one assistant with every capability.
  • If a background or computer-use workflow behaves oddly, use the matching dedicated skill instead of generic automation tools.