---
title: "Discussion on \"Agent Skills: Your system prompt is not a knowledge base\" | Hashnode"
description: "Discussion on \"Agent Skills: Your system prompt is not a knowledge base\". What the format is, and the gap an SDK has to fill"
url: "https://hashnode.com/posts/agent-skills-not-a-knowledge-base/6a884c3fa6bf986c0709f3c7"
---

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# [Agent Skills: Your system prompt is not a knowledge base](https://pratikpanda.hashnode.dev/agent-skills-not-a-knowledge-base?utm_source=hashnode&utm_medium=feed)

What the format is, and the gap an SDK has to fill

Aug 21 · 8 min read · pratikpanda.hashnode.dev  
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## Written by

[Pratik Panda](https://hashnode.com/@pratikpanda)

@pratikpanda · Hyderabad, India

  
[View profile](https://hashnode.com/@pratikpanda)

Senior Consultant @ Microsoft | Cloud x AI Apps

Hi there! 👋 I'm a Senior Consultant at Microsoft, where I architect and build cloud-native distributed systems, including API-first platforms and intelligent applications in Python and .NET, primarily on Azure. Most of it runs on Kubernetes, with DevOps holding it together. More recently my focus has been agentic systems and orchestration, particularly with Microsoft Agent Framework and LangGraph. I write up the things that turned out harder than they looked, and what building them taught me.

## Responses 1

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[Andrew](https://hashnode.com/@rizzdev)

[Aug 21](https://hashnode.com/posts/agent-skills-not-a-knowledge-base/6a884c3fa6bf986c0709f3c7/comment/6a8884108f52f1f37b0b3257)

Your catalog still ships in context every turn, so fifteen skills with when-to-use lists rebuild a smaller 4000-token prompt. Names first, descriptions only when a name looks relevant, would cut that leftover load. Those descriptions are tokens you pay on turns that never need them.