# Skills and the ladder

Source: https://docs.tightly.io/help/ask/skills
Reviewed: 2026-09-07

## The question this page answers

What runs without me, how far does each go, is it proven, does it fire, and what is waiting on my decision? A skill is something that runs without you, written with Ask Tightly in a conversation. The Skills page lists every skill you have, where each stands on the ladder, and the decisions the skills have parked on you.

## The ladder

Every skill stands on one of four rungs, and the words are the same on every face:

| Rung | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tells you | Sends you the reasoning and writes nothing; every act stays with a person |
| Drafts it, you approve | Composes the change and parks it for one press; everything writes through the approvals queue |
| Does it, then tells you | Reversible writes go through on their own, each announced after the fact |
| Does it quietly | Reversible writes go through with the run log as the record |

A skill is born at Tells you and climbs one rung at a time. A rung is earned against evidence, never granted: the gates are at least ten cases all passing on the current version, thirty days of running, and agreement nine times in ten where a person has decided. They are shown on the skill's page, and the move is a person's press once they are open. Demotion is automatic: a case going red on a live version, or two runs undone inside a fortnight, steps the skill down a rung. An irreversible write parks for a person at every rung; that is not a setting.

## What you see

The head reads Skills with the basis USD · 90 days. Under it is a row of counts: how many decisions are waiting, how many skills are live, how many are drafts and how many fire under 90%; a count of nought is left out. The controls are Start from one of ours and Write a skill.

Waiting on you, when a skill has parked a decision on you: What, Worth where a figure was served, Skill, Waiting (how long, with the day it arrived on hover) and Your decision, with Approve and Reject. The section's door is Inbox.

Every skill, with a Fires chart above the table that draws each skill's rate against the 90% floor and leads with the lowest. The columns: Skill (its name, with when it starts under it), Steps (one mark a step, with the count under it), Starts when (On an event, On a schedule, When a condition holds, or By hand, with the wait or the condition under it), Goes as far as (the rung's words), Cases (such as 15 of 16, with how many are red under it, or None yet), Fires (the rate, marked under-triggering below 90%, or Not measured, with not back-tested under it for a skill that is not fired by an event), and State (Live, Draft or Off with its version, such as Live · v2). Live skills come first, then drafts, then off, each by name. On a narrow card Starts when folds first, then Cases, then Goes as far as. A row opens the skill.

Noticed, when Ask Tightly has proposals, or when you arrive at its own address: a pattern it saw in your own actions, with Times seen, First seen, Last seen, Confidence (Strong, Worth a look or Thin), a Back-test where one was served, and Your decision. The strong ones offer Take it; every one offers Not worth it. A row opens What Ask Tightly saw: the evidence (When, Ref, What, Gap), the back-test, and what would be written, its name and description. Its basis line says the evidence is your own actions in Tightly and nothing beyond mail linked to orders.

## What to do

Write a skill opens a conversation with Ask Tightly that drafts one. Start from one of ours opens four templates (chasing unacknowledged orders, matching shipment notices, warning on thin cover, chasing short ships); Start saves one as your own draft skill and opens its page. Approve resumes a parked run from where it stopped; Reject cancels it and nothing further is written, and the row keeps its receipt where the buttons were. Take it hands the pattern to the Ask Tightly panel as the start of a skill-writing turn; nothing is saved until you save the draft. Not worth it dismisses it and the same pattern is not raised again. Publishing, promotion and every edit happen on the skill's own page; nothing on this list publishes, deletes or reorders.

## When it is empty or failed

> No skills

stands where the list would be when there is no skill and nothing waiting.

> Your skills could not be read just now.

> Your inbox could not be read just now.

The last stands in the Waiting on you section when the skills read landed and the inbox's did not, so whether a decision waits is not guessed. With nothing noticed, the Noticed section reached by its address reads

> Nothing noticed yet; Ask Tightly raises one when it sees the same work repeated.