Skills

A skill is a set of instructions that Centrus follows when you ask it to make a file in chat: what kind of file to produce, how to lay it out, and which requests it is for. Centrus comes with seven ready-made skills for spreadsheets, slide decks, PDFs, Word documents, charts and reports. You can add your own on top, so that every quote letter or site report comes out in your house style.

Skills live on the Skills tab of Train. Open Train from the menu on the left and click Skills, the last tab along the top. You need Train access to see it. Admins always have it, and an admin can give it to anyone else from Edit users and roles.

Skills only shape the files Centrus creates. They do not change what Centrus knows or which documents it can search, which is what the other Train tabs and your tags control. For those, see Upload files and Control who sees what with tags.

The seven Centrus skills are built in, and each one is on for everyone until an admin switches it off. They come in three groups:

• Documents: Spreadsheets for Excel workbooks and CSV files, Slides for PowerPoint decks, PDF for PDF files, and Documents for Word files.
• Analysis: Data insights turns a table or CSV file into a downloadable data profile report, and Charts draws a chart or graph and always saves it as a PNG image.
• Reports: Professional report writes a site, job or visit report as a multi-page PDF or Word file.

Every Centrus skill works from information that is already in the conversation. When you ask for a spreadsheet of last week's jobs, Centrus first looks the jobs up with its usual tools, such as your job system connection, and then builds the file from the results. The description under each name is the rule Centrus reads when it decides whether the skill fits a request, which is why some of them read like instructions.

Only an admin can switch a Centrus skill on or off, and the change applies to everyone in the organisation from their next message. Everyone else sees the switches greyed out. You rarely need to switch one off to make room for a skill of your own, because Centrus tries your custom skills first.

Below the Centrus skills, Your skills lists the custom skills you can see. A custom skill is one your organisation has added, either on this page or by saving a layout from a chat. The badge beside the heading counts them, and an amber badge shows how many are waiting for review. In grid view, each skill is a card:

Centrus only uses a skill that is On. A skill that is Off or Pending review stays on the list, but chat ignores it until it is switched on or accepted. The icon on each skill is chosen from words in its name and description, so a letter skill gets an envelope and a RAMS skill gets a hard hat. It has no effect on what the skill does.

1. 1Open Train, click Skills, then click Create skill.
2. 2Leave Type on Document, unless the skill is for generated pictures. Image skills are covered in the next section.
3. 3Optionally choose a Starter. Branded presentation, Branded letterhead and Site report fill in the name, description and When to use for you to adjust. Blank leaves them empty.
4. 4Give the skill a Name of up to 64 characters, and a Description saying in a sentence what it produces. The description is what people see on this page.
5. 5Write When to use. This is the text Centrus matches each request against, so say plainly which requests the skill is for and which it is not.
6. 6Choose who the skill Applies to, and leave Enabled on if it should be used straight away.
7. 7Attach any templates or logos under Templates and logos, then click Create skill.

Name and When to use are required. If you leave Description empty, the page shows the start of When to use in its place. Templates and logos takes PowerPoint (.pptx), Word (.docx) and PDF files, plus PNG, JPEG and SVG images. Scripts, programs and zip files are rejected. Attached files stay with the skill until you remove them.

A skill created on this page does not copy the look of a document, even with a template attached. The locked layout, with its fonts, colours and logo position, can only come from a document Centrus has built in chat. For a skill that reproduces your template exactly, build the document in chat first and then save it as a skill, as described under Save a skill from a chat below.

An organisation can hold up to 40 accepted custom skills, and each person can have up to 10 personal skills. If you reach either limit, Train shows a message and the skill is not saved.

An image skill is a visual kit for pictures rather than documents: a set of reference images and house-style rules that Centrus follows when it generates a picture in chat. Set Type to Image when you create the skill, because the type cannot be changed afterwards. The Starter list is hidden for image skills.

• Image rules set the house style for every picture, such as the subject, colours, lighting and anything to avoid, in up to 4,000 characters.
• Size fixes the shape of every picture made with the skill: Square (1024x1024), Portrait (1024x1536), Landscape (1536x1024) or Story (1088x1920). Square is the default.
• Reference images must be PNG, JPEG or WebP files of up to 25 MB each. A skill needs at least one, can store up to 20, and sends up to eight with each picture request. You can give each new image a short label, such as Side view, to tell them apart.

Image skills only apply in web chat, when the picture icon in the message box is switched on. They are not used on WhatsApp or in Microsoft Teams. When more than one image skill applies to you, Centrus picks the one that fits the request, and naming the skill in your message makes sure it uses that one.

Applies to decides whose chats the skill is used in. New skills start as Personal (you only). Choosing Tag or Team adds a second list underneath, where you pick the tag or team.

• Personal (you only) is used in your own chats only, and goes live straight away.
• Tag is used by everyone who has the tag you pick. Unless you are an admin, you can only pick a tag you have yourself. It goes live straight away when the person creating it has Train access.
• Team is used by everyone in the team you pick. Unless you are an admin, you can only pick a team you belong to. It goes live straight away.
• Organisation is used by everyone in the organisation. If anyone other than an admin creates it, it waits for an admin to accept it.

If you later narrow an organisation skill to a tag, team or just yourself, Centrus removes its organisation-wide access at the same time, so people outside the new scope stop getting it. Teams are set up in Settings. See Teams for how to create them and choose their leaders.

Once a skill is saved, its edit window gains an Access section for giving named people, or teams other than its own, access on top of Applies to. Changes here take effect straight away, without clicking Save changes.

Access

Who can use or edit this skill. Changes here apply straight away.

Owner:John Martin

1

Sarah Price

Edit

ElectricalTeam

Use

2

PersonSelect a personUseAdd rule

3

1. 1The Owner is the person who created the skill, and always has edit access. Hover over the information icon for a reminder of the two access levels.
2. 2Each rule gives a person, a team or the whole organisation Use or Edit access. The cross removes the rule.
3. 3To add a rule, choose Organisation, Person or Team, pick who, choose the level and click Add rule.

• Use means Centrus applies the skill in that person's chat when they ask for a matching document.
• Edit adds the right to change the skill, its access and whether it is enabled.

A team rule follows the team, so anyone who joins it later gets access too. People and teams added here can use the skill in chat straight away, but it only appears on their own Skills tab if it also applies to them through Applies to. An organisation skill always carries an Organisation rule. Removing that rule turns the skill into a personal skill for its owner, plus anyone still named in the other rules.

When a skill has no rules, the section says that only the owner can use it. That message also appears on team and tag skills, which everyone in the team or with the tag can still use.

Two kinds of new skill wait for review before Centrus uses them: an organisation skill created by anyone other than an admin, and a tag skill created by someone without Train access, which can happen when it is saved from a chat. They appear at the top of Your skills with an amber border and a Pending review badge.

Admins can accept any pending skill. A pending tag skill can also be accepted by anyone with Train access who has that tag, but only an admin can accept an organisation skill. A pending organisation skill is only visible to admins and the person who created it. That person also sees an Accept button on it, but clicking it only shows an error.

To check a skill before accepting it, click the pencil, which reads Review skill while the skill is pending. To turn a skill down, open it and use Delete skill. There is no separate reject button.

The surest way to make a skill that reproduces a document exactly is to build the document in chat first and then ask Centrus to save it. Centrus keeps the document's source files, including its layout, fonts, colours and logo, and every later document made with the skill starts from that source instead of a blank page.

1. 1In web chat, ask Centrus for the document and refine it until it looks right.
2. 2Ask Centrus to save it as a skill, and say who it is for. For example: Save this layout as a skill for the Engineers team.
3. 3Centrus lists the parts of the layout it will lock, such as the page size, colours, font and fixed headings, and asks whether they are right. Reply to confirm them or to say what else should be fixed.
4. 4A Save as a skill? card appears under the answer. Check the name and who the skill is for, then click Save skill. Not now discards the draft.

The card then changes to Skill saved and confirms who the skill is for. If the skill has to wait for review, such as an organisation skill saved by someone who is not an admin, the card says it is waiting for an admin to accept it.

Skills saved from chat usually get a lower-case name with hyphens, such as riverside-site-report, which you can change on Train afterwards. Any logo or template you added to the chat is bundled with the skill. The draft only lasts 15 minutes, so if a late click on Save skill says the draft has expired, ask Centrus to propose the skill again.

To change a skill later, ask Centrus in chat to update it, using the name shown on Train. It captures the layout from the current chat and shows an Update this skill? card with an Update skill button. You can only update skills you have edit access to. On WhatsApp there is no card, so Centrus describes what it will save and you reply yes to confirm.

You do not need to pick a skill. When you ask for a file, Centrus compares the request with the When to use text of every skill that is on and that you can use, and follows the one that fits. Your custom skills come first, and the Centrus skills cover anything they do not. If you ask for a document without naming a format, Centrus makes a PDF.

While Centrus works, the steps above the answer show what it is doing, such as Reading the skill guide and Copying the skill template followed by the skill's name. The finished file appears as a card under the answer, ready to open or save. A few things are worth knowing:

• Skills only come into play when you ask for a file. Questions, lookups and summaries are answered in the chat as normal.
• On WhatsApp and in the Microsoft Teams chatbot, document skills work in the same way, and the files arrive as download links at the end of the reply. The links last seven days.
• Centrus can bring up to 16 skills into each answer: the Centrus skills that are on, then your custom skills, newest first. With all seven Centrus skills on, that leaves room for nine custom skills, so switching off Centrus skills nobody uses makes room for more of your own.
• A message that builds a file costs two extra message credits, however many steps it takes. See Message credits.
• A custom skill you create, edit or accept is used from the next message onwards.

Behind every document skill is the document sandbox, which admins can turn off for the whole organisation under Settings, then Organisation, with Enable document sandbox in chat. It is on by default. While it is off, Centrus cannot build files in chat and ignores every document skill, whatever the switches on the Skills tab say. Image skills are not affected. See Organisation settings.

Click the pencil on a skill to open Edit skill. You can change everything except Type, which is fixed once a skill exists. Starter only appears when you create a skill. Click Save changes to keep your edits.

• Saved templates and logos are listed with their size. Remove takes one off when you save, and uploading a new file with the same name replaces the old one.
• Enabled switches the skill off without deleting it, so it stays on the list as Off.
• Saving changes needs edit access. Admins, the owner, team leaders for their team's skills, people with Train access for skills on their tags, and anyone given Edit under Access can save. Anyone else can open a skill they can see, but saving shows an error.

Deleting a skill removes it for everyone it applies to, and chat, WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams stop using it straight away. It cannot be recovered. If the deletion cannot be completed, the skill is switched off instead and stays on the list as Off.

The header card has three ways to narrow the page down once the list grows.

Search covers the Centrus skills too, so searching for chart finds Charts once the Centrus skills block is expanded. When none of your own skills match, the page says so. The page always opens in list view, and the view buttons only appear once there is at least one custom skill. Until then, the page shows the Create a skill card on its own.

On a phone, the toolbar wraps onto several lines and the Centrus skills block shows one skill per row. List view keeps its full width and scrolls sideways, so grid view, which stacks the skills as cards, is easier to read.

09:41

Centrus

Train

Add data sources to train Centrus

Skills

What Centrus knows how to produce in chat and WhatsApp.

Search skillsAllCentrusCustomCreate skill

Centrus skills6 of 7 on

Ready-made document and analysis skills. On for everyone until you turn them off.

Your skills

5 skills1 awaiting reviewDocuments or images

Grid view suits a phone

riverside-site-report

On

Team

Riverside House visit reports on our branded A4 template, with findings, photos and a sign-off block.

Layout locked1 file22/09/2026

Everyone with Train access can open the Skills tab. What they can do there depends on whether they are an admin.

John Martin

Admin

• Switch Centrus skills on or off
• Create skills for any scope, live straight away
• Accept any skill waiting for review
• See, edit and delete every custom skill
• Choose any tag or team for a skill

DH

Dylan Hughes

Engineer, with Train access

• Switch Centrus skills on or off
• Personal, team and tag skills, live straight away
• Organisation skills wait for an admin
• Edit and delete the skills he owns
• Only his own tags and teams

• Admins can switch Centrus skills on and off, create a skill for any scope without review, accept pending skills, and see, edit and delete every custom skill.
• Everyone else with Train access can create personal skills and skills for their own tags and teams, which go live straight away. Their organisation skills wait for an admin. They see the Centrus skills, the skills they own and the skills that apply to them, and can edit the ones they own or have been given Edit access to.
• Team leaders can also edit, accept and delete the skills that apply to their team.

People without Train access cannot open the Skills tab, but Centrus still uses the skills that apply to them in chat, and they can save a skill from a chat. Organisation and tag skills they save wait for review. To change who has Train access, see Edit users and roles.