Skills vs. Knowledge - Serval Documentation

Skills and Knowledge are the two ways you give Serval’s help desk agent what it needs to resolve a request. The rule for telling them apart is one sentence.

Knowledge is information. Skills are instructions.If it’s a fact the agent looks up to answer a question, it’s Knowledge. If it changes how the agent behaves, it’s a Skill.

The test

Ask: am I giving the agent a fact, or telling it how to act?

A fact the agent uses to answer a question — “How much PTO do I get?”, “What’s our parental leave policy?” → Knowledge
Instructions that shape what the agent does — “Push back when someone asks for admin access; if they insist, run the access-request workflow” → Skill

Examples

Put it in…	When it’s…	Example
Knowledge	a policy or fact someone would look up	PTO policy, benefits overview, holiday schedule, expense limits
Skill	a behavior or procedure the agent should follow	”For prod access requests, verify the requester’s team, then run the access-request workflow”
Knowledge	reference material, no action	”Our VPN client is Cisco AnyConnect; supported OSes are…”
Skill	how to handle a situation	”If a user reports repeated VPN failures, collect their device details and escalate to IT”

The same topic can live on both sides. “The guest Wi-Fi password is serval-guest” is Knowledge. “When someone can’t connect to Wi-Fi, walk them through these steps, then escalate if it still fails” is a Skill. Facts go in Knowledge; the steps for what to do go in a Skill.

Learn more

Skills overview — how to write instructions for the agent
Knowledge Base overview — how to author and connect reference content

​The test

​Examples

​Learn more

The test

Examples

Learn more