Templates and Skills
Agent Templates and skill packs are the two main reuse layers for managed agents.
Agent Templates
Section titled “Agent Templates”Agent Templates define the defaults you want many agents to share.
A template typically controls:
- Model selection
- Guardrails
- Token and temperature limits
- Tool categories
- Memory-related defaults
That makes templates the right place for policy and runtime consistency. If you need to rotate models or tighten controls across a fleet, update the template instead of editing every agent.
Skill packs
Section titled “Skill packs”Skill packs extend an agent with reusable instructions, tools, and static context.
A skill pack can provide:
- Tools the agent can call
- Instructions added to the system behavior
- Context that should be present on every invoke
ThinkWork stores skill packs in S3 and loads them at invocation time.
How they work together
Section titled “How they work together”A common pattern is:
- Template decides the model and operating boundaries
- Agent record defines purpose and prompt
- Skill packs add domain-specific capabilities
- Knowledge pages and memory settings shape what the agent can recall
This split keeps agent definitions small and makes reuse practical.
Example: support fleet
Section titled “Example: support fleet”For example, you might create:
- A
Support Standardtemplate using Claude Sonnet with guardrails enabled - A
ticketingskill pack for issue actions - A
docsknowledge source for product documentation - Default AgentCore LongTerm memory for customer continuity
Then create separate agents for billing, onboarding, and technical support on top of the same base.
See Concepts: Agents for the full model and Authoring Guide: Skill Packs for the SKILL.md format.