Share Skills and Connections With Your Team, and Decide Who Gets What | Heidelberg AI Curriculum
T21-L03
Share Skills and Connections With Your Team, and Decide Who Gets What
Move a tested skill from copied folders into one shared library in OpenWork Cloud. Set up an organisation with teams and roles, publish the skill to a team, add a connector where each person signs in as themselves, change the skill safely, and prove that removing someone takes their access away.
Mira's maintenance skill worked. Tarek used it, then Lena, then two more technicians. Each copied the folder from the shared drive. Lena added a column for downtime. Someone else shortened the date rule because it "looked complicated". Now there are three versions, and on Monday two people bring tables that disagree about when the plate reader broke.
The group also wants the agent to look up each instrument's page in Notion, the group's wiki. Two colleagues have each found a way to connect it, with access codes pasted into files nobody else can see.
In a company it's Jonas's purchasing team. Their extra worry is the contractor who left in June and still has the folder and the skill, and nobody is sure what else.
Copying files was the right start for two people. For five, you need one copy, a list of who gets it, a rule for who may change it, and a way to take it back. This book builds that with OpenWork Cloud, the online service OpenWork's makers run for teams. You are at Level 3 Builder: colleagues now depend on something you set up, and it has to keep working when you're not in the room.
After this you can
Decide what goes into a shared library and what stays on each computer, and say what the online service stores and where it runs.
Create an organisation in OpenWork Cloud, invite colleagues as members and put them into teams.
Publish a tested skill to a team, set who may change it, and change it later by copying, testing and only then replacing it.
Add one connector so that each person signs in with their own account, and say what the agent can do through it.
Take one colleague's access away and show that the skill and the connector are gone from their app.
A skill that passed its test sheet, and the practice files you tested it with.
Two colleagues who agree to join a trial. Each needs OpenWork with a model, a practice folder with practice files, and their own account in the service you will connect.
OpenWork Cloud is run by a company in the United States. If the answer is no, read the company example first: the same service can run on your organisation's own server.
A yes from whoever decides about online services where you work.
One service to connect that your team already uses and that holds nothing sensitive in the part you'll test. Pick one that OpenWork lists: Notion, Linear, Slack, GitHub, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are among them.
An answer on cost. OpenWork's team guide says the first 5 people are free. Its price list puts shared skills under a plan at $10 per person per month. Ask whoever holds the budget now, so you know what to do if the website asks for payment.
About 2 hours 20 minutes: 20 to read, about 2 hours to do.
Last verified 12 October 2026 against OpenWork's documentation and version 0.18.57. The vendor's team guide makes the first 5 people free, then $10 per person per month. OpenWork Cloud is run by a US company; your own server is the alternative. Details for experts at the end of this book.
The idea in one page
One copy, with a list of who gets it. A skill that travels as a folder exists once per computer, and nobody knows which copy is right. A shared library holds it once. Next to it stands a list: these people or these teams can use it. Whoever is on the list finds the skill in their app without installing anything.
A local skill
A shared skill
Where it lives
A folder in one person's workspace
Your organisation's library
Who gets it
Whoever copies the folder
The people and teams on its list
A change reaches others
When they copy again
At their next task, or at once with Refresh
Taking it back
You can't
Remove them from the list
An organisation, teams and three roles. The organisation is your group's space in OpenWork Cloud. A team is a named set of people inside it, such as Technicians. You share things with teams, so a newcomer gets everything by joining one. Roles decide who may manage. There is one Owner. A few Admins invite people and manage what is shared. Everyone else is a Member, who uses what is shared and can share what they made themselves.
A change reaches everyone at once. That is the point of sharing, and also the risk: edit the shared skill on Sunday night, and five Monday tables carry your typo. So you never try a change on the shared copy. You duplicate it, test the duplicate on your practice files, and only then change the real one.
A connector lets the agent act in another system. A connector links OpenWork to a service such as a wiki, a task list or a mailbox. You choose how people sign in. With Each person signs in, the agent works as that person and can see and do what that person can. With One account for everyone, every colleague's agent works as the same account. Choose the first, unless the account is a read-only one made for the purpose.
Know what is stored where. Your files stay on your computers. What the agent reads goes to the model you chose, as before. OpenWork Cloud holds the rest: accounts, teams, the text of shared skills, and the sign-ins for connectors. So a skill's text must contain nothing that may not be stored there.
It is finished when you can take it away. Anyone can hand out access. What you built is sound when you have removed one person and watched the skill disappear from their app.
Worked example: one library for five technicians
The example follows the four steps of T01-L01 · From Idea to Working Result: The Four-Quadrant Method. Two places are involved, and each step says which: the dashboard, the website app.openworklabs.com in your browser, where you manage the organisation, and the app, OpenWork on someone's computer.
Lab: Mira's group
1. Structure it. Mira writes a short list before she opens anything:
What
Who needs it
Who may change it
Skill weekly-maintenance-overview
The five technicians
Mira, and Tarek as her deputy
Access to the instrument pages in Notion
The five technicians, reading
Each as themselves
Notes that name patients
Nobody through the library
Stay on the clinic computer
The third row matters as much as the first two. Deciding what is not shared is part of the design.
2. Understand it. Three things she doesn't know yet, so she finds out.
May we use it? She asks the group leader and the person responsible for data protection whether skill texts and sign-ins may be stored with a US service. For made-up notes and a trial, the answer is yes. For real notes, the decision is postponed until the trial is over.
Which version is right? She collects the three copies of SKILL.md from the shared drive and reads them side by side. Two rules differ: the date rule, and Lena's downtime column. She takes both questions to the group. The breakdown date wins; the downtime column is wanted, but later.
What could the agent do in Notion? Signed in as Tarek, it could do whatever Tarek can, and Tarek can edit pages. So the first test will be a question that only reads.
Her list changes: the skill gets a first line, "agreed 12 October", and the list a fourth row, "downtime column: next change". In the method this is the loop Structure it ⇄ Understand it: asking showed that "the skill" was three different things.
3. Choose tools. For a trial with five people, OpenWork Cloud needs no server, and it is free by the vendor's team guide or $10 per person per month by its price list; the group leader has agreed to either. The alternative she notes is running the same service on a lab server, for the day real notes are involved. Staying with copied folders is the option she rules out: it is what produced three versions.
4. Build it: the organisation. All four steps happen in the dashboard.
4a. Create the organisation. Mira opens app.openworklabs.com (opens in a new tab), enters her work email and clicks Next. She picks a name and a password and clicks Sign up. OpenWork asks for a team name. What she types here names the whole organisation, so she types the group's name. Where it offers to invite colleagues or add tools right away, she leaves that for the steps below.
You should see: the dashboard, with a short setup list. Mira is the Owner.
4b. Close the door first. She opens Settings › General and turns on Restrict allowed email domains. She adds the institute's domain, the part of its email addresses after the @, to the Domain allowlist and clicks Save settings.
You should see: the domain in the list. Only addresses that end in it can join now.
4c. Invite colleagues. Under Members she clicks Add member, enters Tarek's email, leaves the role at Member and clicks Send invite. She repeats this for the others.
You should see: each person listed as Pending until they open the link in their mail and set a password.
4d. Make a team. On Members › Teams she clicks Create Team, names it Technicians, picks the members and clicks Create team.
You should see: the team with its members.
5. Build it: the skill.
5a. Create it, in the dashboard. In My Library she clicks Add to your Library, chooses Skill and clicks Continue. On Create a skill she enters Maintenance overview as plugin name and one sentence on what it is for as description. A plugin is the package OpenWork wraps around one or more skills. She fills in the skill's name and the sentence that says when to use it. Into the steps she pastes the numbered routine from the agreed SKILL.md, without the lines between the dashes. She clicks Create plugin.
You should see: the plugin in My Library. So far only Mira can use it.
5b. Share it with the team, in the dashboard. She opens the plugin and clicks Share. Under Who can use it she clicks Add team, picks Technicians and confirms with the Share with button. As Owner she also sees a switch Everyone in the organization; she leaves it off.
You should see: the team named under Who can use it. If the dashboard asks for payment at this point, that is the plan from Before you start, and you already have your answer.
5c. Say who may change it, in the dashboard. Under Manage › Plugins she clicks the plugin, opens its ⋯ menu and chooses Edit contents. Under Who can access this she picks Tarek, chooses Can edit and clicks Grant.
You should see: Tarek listed with Can edit. Everyone else in the team can use the skill but not change it.
5d. Sign in, in the app. Mira, and then each colleague on their own computer, opens OpenWork, goes to Settings › Account and clicks Sign in. The browser opens; they sign in and pick the organisation.
You should see: your name and the organisation under Settings › Account. If the browser doesn't lead back to OpenWork, Paste sign-in code on the same page takes the code the website shows.
5e. Find the skill, in the app. Tarek opens Settings › Library and clicks the Skills filter.
You should see: the skill under From OpenWork. If it isn't there yet, the round button whose tip says Refresh fetches the latest list.
5f. Remove the old copy, in the app. Everyone who still has the skill as a folder does this, Mira included. Whoever never had one skips the step. Tarek asks his agent: "Delete the folder .opencode/skills/weekly-maintenance-overview in this workspace." If a request appears, he checks that it names only this folder, and allows it. Then he restarts OpenWork.
You should see: one skill of that name in the Library, not two. Two skills with the same job would leave the agent to choose between them.
5g. Run it, in the app. Tarek asks for this week's overview in his own words and checks the table: rows against notes, three rows against their sources. Lena does the same on her computer. Mira watches neither.
You should see: the chat names the shared skill, and both tables pass their checks.
6. Understand it again: change it without breaking Monday. Now the downtime column.
6a. Duplicate, in the app. In Settings › Library Mira opens the ⋯ menu on the skill and chooses Duplicate.
You should see: a second skill whose name ends in "(copy)". Only Mira can use it.
6b. Change the copy, in the app. She opens the ⋯ menu on the copy and chooses Edit. She adds the downtime column to step 3 of the routine and clicks Save.
You should see: the copy with the new step, and the shared skill unchanged.
6c. Test the copy, in the app. She clicks Refresh in her Library, starts a New session and asks for it by name: "Use the skill weekly-maintenance-overview (copy) for the notes in week-42."
You should see: the chat names the copy, and the table has the new column. One note gives downtime as "most of Tuesday", and the table says "8 hours". Mira adds the rule "quote downtime as written" to the copy and tests again.
6d. Replace, in the app. Only now, on a Tuesday, she opens the ⋯ menu on the shared skill, chooses Edit and puts the tested routine in place of the old one. The window tells her how many people have this skill and that saving changes it for them too. She clicks Save for everyone. In the group chat she writes: "Maintenance overview now has a downtime column, from today."
You should see: on Tarek's computer, his next overview has the column. Nobody installed anything.
6e. Delete the copy, in the app. She opens the ⋯ menu on the copy, chooses Delete… and confirms.
You should see: one skill of that name again.
7. Build it: one connector.
7a. Add it, in the dashboard. Under Manage › Connectors Mira clicks Add connector and picks Notion from the list.
You should see: a page Add Notion with four checks: Finds Notion, Knows how you sign in, Sign in to Notion and Has things your AI can do.
7b. Finish the checks. She clicks Sign in with Notion and signs in with her own Notion account in the tab that opens.
You should see: all four checks done.
7c. Choose how people sign in. Under How people sign in she chooses Each person signs in. Under Who can use it she clicks Add team and picks Technicians. She clicks Add Notion.
You should see: Notion in the list of connectors.
7d. Sign in as yourself, in the app. Tarek opens Settings › Library, clicks the Connectors filter and clicks Sign in next to Notion. He signs in with his own Notion account.
7e. Ask a question that only reads. Tarek asks: "Find the page for the plate reader in Notion and tell me its last service date." He opens the page himself and compares.
You should see: the date on the page and the date in the answer are the same. The group then agrees on one sentence for the library sheet: the agent may read Notion; nobody asks it to edit pages until we have tried that on a practice page.
8. Understand it once more: take access away. Lena moves to another group next month. Mira rehearses it now.
8a. Remove, in the dashboard. On Members › Teams Mira opens the team Technicians and takes Lena out of its members.
8b. Look, in the app. Lena clicks Refresh in her Library.
You should see: the skill and the connector are no longer in Lena's Library. If either is still there, look for a second route that gives it to her: a direct share, another team, or Everyone in the organization.
8c. Write down what stays. Mira adds Lena back, and notes the two things the library can't take away: any old local copy of the skill on Lena's computer, and the files in Lena's own folders. When someone really leaves, she also removes them under Members, so they can no longer sign in to the organisation.
Company: Jonas's purchasing team
Jonas's answer to "May we use it?" is no: quotes and supplier logins may not be stored outside the company. IT sets up the same service on a company server instead. The steps above stay the same, with two differences. When a colleague starts the app for the first time, its welcome screen offers Join your organization; there they paste the server address IT gave them. And nobody connects a model alone: an admin adds the one model the company has approved under AI Gateway › AI Providers, the dashboard's page for models, so no colleague has to paste an access key, a password for programs, into their own app.
His connector is Microsoft 365, for the mailbox where quotes arrive. The quick way would be One account for everyone with Jonas's own login. Then every colleague's agent would read Jonas's whole mailbox, and a draft written by mistake would sit there under his name. He chooses Each person signs in, and the first test is again a question that only reads.
The contractor who left in June is the reason for step 8. Jonas removes a test colleague, checks the Library, and adds a line to the team's leaving checklist.
What goes wrong
Editing the shared skill directly.Symptom: five tables with the same new mistake on Monday. Fix: duplicate, test the copy on practice files, then change the shared one, on a day when someone can react.
Everyone is an Admin.Symptom: a colleague shares a half-finished skill with the whole organisation. Fix: invite people as Member. Keep one Owner and one or two Admins.
One account for everyone on a system that can write.Symptom: a page edited or a mail drafted, and it happened under your name. Fix:Each person signs in. Use a shared account only if it is read-only and made for the purpose.
Old local copies stay behind.Symptom: the agent sometimes follows last month's rule. Fix: when a skill moves to the library, each person deletes their folder copy, as in step 5f.
A login or a person's name inside a skill.Symptom: a password or a patient's name is now stored online and readable by everyone on the list. Fix: skills describe routines. Sign-ins belong in connectors, and names in nobody's skill.
The sixth person joins.Symptom: an invoice nobody planned for. Fix: the first 5 people are free. Decide who pays before you invite number six.
Do it yourself (2 hours)
Structure it (15 minutes). Write the three-column list: what, who needs it, who may change it. Add at least one row for something that stays local.
Understand it (20 minutes). Get the yes or no on where the service may run. Collect every copy of your skill and settle the differences. Write what the agent could do through your connector as one of your colleagues.
Choose tools (5 minutes). OpenWork Cloud for the trial, or your own server. Write one line on why.
Build it: organisation (20 minutes). Do steps 4a to 4d with two colleagues. You should see both in your team.
Build it: skill (25 minutes). Do steps 5a to 5g. You should see each colleague's table pass three checked rows.
Understand it again (15 minutes). Make one small change by steps 6a to 6e. You should see it in a colleague's next result.
Build it: connector (15 minutes). Do steps 7a to 7e with Each person signs in. You should see an answer that matches the source page.
Take it away (5 minutes). Do steps 8a to 8c with one colleague. Write down what you both see, then add them back.
Exit check
Hand in a one-page library sheet:
each shared skill and connector, with who can use it, who can change it, how people sign in, and one sentence on what the agent can do through it;
where the service runs, and who agreed to that;
one change made by duplicate, test and replace, with its date and what the test found;
the removal test: who, what was gone after the refresh, and what stayed on their computer.
It passes when a second colleague ran the shared skill without your help, and the skill was gone from the removed colleague's Library after a refresh.
Rule to remember
Share one copy, decide who may change it, and prove that taking access away works.
Details for experts
Checked on 12 October 2026. You don't need this to follow the book; it's for setting things up or answering a colleague.
What
Details
What it means for you
Plans
A person in an organisation is called a seat. The team guide says every organisation includes 5 free seats; further seats are $10 each per month on the Team plan, which adds single sign-on, logging in through your organisation's own login page. The price list puts shared skills under Team. Enterprise, the plan for large organisations: price on request.
If the dashboard asks for payment when you share, that is the Team plan.
Roles
Owner: everything, including roles, organisation settings and billing. Admin: invites Members, manages teams, shared skills, connectors and models. Member: uses what is shared and can share what they made with people and teams.
Only Admins and the Owner can share with the whole organisation or add connectors under Manage.
Who runs OpenWork Cloud
Different AI, a company in San Francisco. The vendor's pages name the companies it uses for the database, payments and analytics, and state a completed SOC 2 Type II audit, an outside review of its security controls.
Give these facts to whoever decides about online services.
Your own server
The service is published as source code you may read. It is free to run for up to 5 users, and for 30 days of evaluation at any size; beyond that it needs a paid plan. A ready-made Docker Compose setup, a file that starts the needed programs together, exists for trying it.
An Admin adds a model company once under AI Gateway › AI Providers. The setting Only models you provide stops members from connecting their own.
One approved model, no access keys on laptops.
Connector actions
For Gmail and Microsoft 365, sending mail and managing the mailbox are switched off until an Admin enables them.
Reading and drafting come first; sending is a separate decision.
The same library in OpenCode
OpenCode is the course's coding assistant. In a terminal: opencode plugin add opencode-openwork installs the link, and opencode auth login openwork signs you in. It needs OpenCode 2.