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ExplanationWhy it works this way.

What an ability is

An ability is a workflow your bot runs mid-conversation to do something real: send a document, book a call, push a lead to your CRM.

Out of the box your bot answers questions from your knowledge base. An ability is what lets it do something instead: send a document, collect details, call your API, push a lead into ClickUp, hand the visitor to WhatsApp.

The three parts#

An ability is a workflow with two extra things attached.

  1. The workflow. Nodes on a canvas — send a message, ask a question, call an

API, branch on the answer. This is deterministic: no model is involved once the ability starts running.

  1. The description. Prose telling the assistant when to run it. This is the

only thing making that decision, and it is worth more care than anything else about the ability. See writing a good description.

  1. The parameters. Values the assistant pulls out of the conversation and

hands to the workflow — an email address, a product name, a date.

What happens in a conversation#

text
Visitor   Can you send me the brochure?
          |
          |  the assistant reads every ability description
          |  and picks "send_brochure"
          v
Workflow  Form node: asks for an email address
          API node:  posts it to your mailing system
          End node:  reports success
          |
          v
Bot       Sent — check your inbox in a minute.

The assistant chooses; the workflow executes. Keeping those separate is what makes abilities predictable — once a workflow starts, it does exactly what you drew, every time.

Where the model stops#

This surprises people, so it is worth being explicit: the model does not run inside your workflow. It chooses the ability and extracts the parameters, and then hands over.

That means:

  • A Decision node branches on a value, not on a judgement.
  • A Transform node runs your code, not a prompt.
  • If you need the workflow to interpret something loosely, do that before the

ability starts — as a parameter the assistant fills in.

Limits#

Every paid plan allows five abilities per bot, and that is a quality ceiling rather than a packaging decision. The assistant chooses by reading descriptions, and that choice gets less reliable as the list grows. Fifteen abilities on one bot would be a worse product at a higher price.

If you have more than five distinct jobs, split them across bots — each with a focused set and its own knowledge base.

Next#