Create a skill

There are three ways to get a skill:

Way	Best for	Can sign in to sites?
From a sentence	Public pages: search results, listings, directories.	No
By recording it	Tasks behind your sign-in, or that need exact clicks.	Yes
From the marketplace	Common tasks someone has already built.	Depends on the skill

From a sentence

You describe the task and the page it starts on. Valendata does the task in a cloud browser, learns the steps, and checks them with one more run. This takes a few minutes. You can start it from:

The app: My Skills → Create Skill → Describe it. The product tour and Igris, the in-app assistant, can do it too.
Your AI assistant: ask it to create a skill. It uses the create_skill tool. See MCP tools.
The API: POST /v1/skills.

Optionally name the inputs (with the example value the task uses) and the output fields you want. If you leave them out, Valendata works them out from the task. Names are turned into snake_case, so Phone number becomes phone_number.

curl -X POST https://api.valendata.com/v1/skills \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VALENDATA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: dentists-austin-001" \
  -d '{
    "task": "Search for dentists in Austin and list them",
    "start_url": "https://www.google.com/maps",
    "inputs": {"city": "Austin"},
    "output_fields": {"name": "business name", "rating": "star rating", "phone": "phone number"}
  }'

import os, time, requests

API = "https://api.valendata.com"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['VALENDATA_API_KEY']}"}

creation = requests.post(
    f"{API}/v1/skills",
    headers={**HEADERS, "Idempotency-Key": "dentists-austin-001"},
    json={
        "task": "Search for dentists in Austin and list them",
        "start_url": "https://www.google.com/maps",
        "inputs": {"city": "Austin"},
        "output_fields": {"name": "business name", "rating": "star rating", "phone": "phone number"},
    },
).json()

while creation["status"] not in ("ready", "failed"):
    time.sleep(5)
    creation = requests.get(f"{API}{creation['status_url']}", headers=HEADERS).json()

print(creation["status"], creation["slug"], creation.get("error"))

The call answers at once with a creation_id. Read GET /v1/skill-creations/{creation_id} every few seconds until it is done:

`status`	Meaning
`queued`	Waiting to start.
`recording`	The cloud browser is doing the task.
`validating`	Saved as a skill (`slug` is set). Valendata runs it once more to check it.
`ready`	Passed the check. You can run it.
`failed`	Did not work. `error` says why and `diagnosis` suggests what to try.

Limits: 2 creations in progress at once, at least 10 credits to start, and 30 minutes per creation. A cloud browser starting fresh cannot sign in, so record tasks that need your sign-in instead.

By recording it

Start recording

Open a new session from the dashboard. In the chat box, switch on Record Skill. It shows Recording… while it is on.

Do the task

Type the task for the agent, or use the browser yourself: sign in, search, page through results, and reach the data you want. Every step is recorded.

Stop and publish

Stop the session. The recording is saved under Configs. Open it, click Publish as skill, give it a name and description, choose the visibility, and click Publish Skill.

Check the inputs and output fields

Open the skill. Click Suggest to detect inputs and output fields from the recording, then rename or adjust them.

If the site needs a sign-in on later runs, attach a browser profile or a saved login. See Use a saved login.

Run a skill
Improve a skill if a field comes back empty.

Get started

Concepts

How-to guides

Use with AI assistants

Account and security

From a sentence

By recording it

Next

​From a sentence

​By recording it

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From a sentence

By recording it

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