A skill can do real things to real customers. So Gruvi puts two steps between installing one and that happening, and both are worth using properly.

Why nothing goes live by accident

Every skill arrives as a draft. Installing one from the store does not switch it on. It only puts it on your shelf.

A skill goes live when its gates are green and you publish it. Until then it cannot touch a customer, however tempting the Get button made it look.

What rehearsing is

A private chat in which you play the customer and the skill behaves exactly as it would in a real conversation. Nothing reaches a real customer, and it takes about a minute.

It is the same idea as Training mode for Chloe's replies, applied to a whole job rather than a single answer.

How to rehearse a skill

1Open the skill from Skills, then Your skills.
2Scroll to Try it out at the bottom of the Overview tab.
3Click Rehearse.
4Write as a customer would, in the words a customer would use.
5Follow the conversation through to the end, including whatever the skill asks you for.

What to try

The temptation is to test the path where everything works. That path is the one most likely to work anyway.

The awkward phrasing. Customers do not open with a tidy request.
The missing record. Ask about an order that does not exist, and check it stops rather than inventing something.
Changing your mind. Start the request, then say you would rather not.
Refusing to confirm. A well-built skill will not move without a clear yes.
Asking for something related but different, to see whether it over-reaches.

Rehearse as your most difficult customer, not your most reasonable one. You are looking for where the skill breaks, and a cooperative customer will never show you.

What to watch for

Does it collect enough?: The Overview lists what it always asks for. Check it actually does, rather than guessing.
Does it stop when it should?: No record, no confirmation, or needing sign-off should all stop it cleanly.
Does it sound like you?: It is speaking to your customers in your name.
Is the handover clean?: When it gives up, the thread should arrive with everything already collected.

Publishing it

Once the rehearsal convinces you, publish. The skill goes live and starts handling real conversations.

Set Approvals before you do, not after. Ask for approval means every action still waits for a person, which is the right setting for a skill's first weeks however well the rehearsal went.

A rehearsal is you imagining a customer. Real customers are stranger, blunter and less cooperative than anything you will think of. Publish with approvals on and let reality correct you cheaply.

Watching it afterwards

The Activity tab shows what the skill has actually done. Read it daily for the first week, then weekly.

You are looking for two things: actions that should not have been taken, and conversations where it gave up but should have coped. The first is a settings problem, the second usually a knowledge one.

Each skill also carries a rating, with an average across the teams using it. It is worth a glance before installing, and worth contributing to once you have an opinion. ---

Trying a skill before going live