Checked fact 240723 Oct 2026Agents and apps

The specification's progressive disclosure has three levels: metadata of about 100 tokens (name and description) loaded at startup for all skills, instructions under 5000 tokens recommended loaded when the skill is activated, and resources loaded only as needed.

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The exact words it rests on

Metadata (~100 tokens): The name and description fields are loaded at startup for all skills Instructions (< 5000 tokens recommended): The full SKILL.md body is loaded when the skill is activated Resources (as needed): Files (e.g. those in scripts/, references/, or assets/) are loaded only when required

What the source said when we opened it, on 23 Oct 2026.

The source

Agent Skills specification
Agent Skills project

Open the source archived copy

Checked

Checked by the notis newsroom on 23 Oct 2026, against the source above.

In the story

How an agent loads a skill in three steps 23 Oct 2026

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In a sentence

“The specification's progressive disclosure has three levels: metadata of about 100 tokens (name and description) loaded at startup for all skills, instructions under 5000 tokens recommended loaded when the skill is activated, and resources loaded only as needed.” ai notis, checked 23 Oct 2026. Source: Agent Skills specification (Agent Skills project). https://ainotis.com/c/2407

As a reference (APA style)

ai notis. (2026, October 23). The specification's progressive disclosure has three levels: metadata of about 100 tokens (name and description) loaded at startup for all skills, instructions under 5000 tokens recommended loaded when the skill is activated, and resources loaded only as needed [Checked claim 2407]. ai notis. https://ainotis.com/c/2407

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