Gemini Skills Guide: Migrate Gems, Upload SKILL.md, and Handle the Workspace Delay

Gemini Skills save reusable instructions and reference material so you can apply the same working method across chats. They overlap with Gems, but they are designed to work inside an existing conversation. You can call a skill with /, or @ where the updated shortcut is available, and combine several skills for one task.

The rollout needs an important qualification as of October 14, 2026. Skills are gradually available to eligible personal Google Accounts, but Google’s end-user help still says creation and use are not currently available for work or school accounts. On October 13, the Google Workspace team also added an update saying the Workspace launch is delayed. If a Workspace menu is missing, repeated account changes will not solve a rollout that Google has paused.

What matters now

For personal accounts, the current requirements are age 18 or older, a signed-in personal Google Account, and Keep Activity turned on.
Open Customize → Skills to build with Gemini, edit a template, create manually, or upload a SKILL.md project.
An activated skill can be invoked directly, selected automatically when relevant, or stacked with other skills.
Gems will transition on different schedules by account type. Automatically migrated items will arrive as inactive draft skills that still require review and activation.
Skills do not currently sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps, and the Workspace rollout is delayed.

How Skills differ from Gems

Area	Gems	Skills
Where you work	A dedicated Gem conversation	Inside the current chat or task flow
How you invoke it	Select a Gem from its list	`/skill-name`, `@skill-name`, or automatic use
Composition	One Gem-centered flow	Stack multiple skills in one request
Portable format	Gem configuration and knowledge	Markdown-native `SKILL.md` plus supported files

A skill is also different from a task or schedule. A task describes the goal, a schedule defines when it runs, and a skill describes how Gemini should perform the work and what context it should use. A skill does not automatically grant permission to operate external services.

Gemini Apps Help showing the personal-account requirements and the Customize to Skills navigation path — Personal-account requirements and the Customize → Skills path. Source: Gemini Apps Help, checked October 14, 2026.

Check the prerequisites first

Account type: Sign in with a personal Google Account. Google’s current user help says the feature is not yet available with work or school accounts.
Age: Personal-account creation and use currently require the user to be at least 18.
Activity setting: Keep Activity must be on. Organization accounts should follow their administrator’s retention and data policies when the rollout resumes.
Supported surfaces: Google lists the Gemini web app, mobile app, and Gemini app on Mac. This is a gradual rollout, so two eligible accounts might not receive the menu at the same time.
Safe source material: Remove customer data, API keys, passwords, and unnecessary confidential files before adding references.

Completion check: The Gemini sidebar shows Customize, the Skills page opens, and you can choose Create or Upload. If the menu is absent, verify account type and rollout status before assuming a browser problem.

Create a small skill manually

Open gemini.google.com on a computer and go to Customize → Skills. The page supports four practical starting paths:

Create with Gemini to describe the goal conversationally.
Recommended templates to edit an existing name, description, and instruction set.
Create manually to write the fields yourself.
Upload to import a file, folder, or ZIP whose root contains SKILL.md.

A manual skill is easier to validate than a large migration. Its description should explain when Gemini should apply it automatically, not merely what it does. Keep the instructions specific to the job and include one or two examples of the desired output.

Name: weekly-brief-editor
Description: Use when turning weekly work notes into an executive brief.
Instructions:
- Put the conclusion first.
- Separate facts, decisions, and unresolved risks.
- Do not invent numbers, owners, or deadlines.
- End with next actions and items that require confirmation.

After creating it, start a fresh chat, select /weekly-brief-editor, and provide a short sample note. Confirm that the structure, uncertainty labels, and next-action section match the instructions.

Upload SKILL.md and reference files

Use Upload when a team manages instructions as files or when you want to import a skill from another compatible platform. The root of the folder or ZIP must contain SKILL.md. The skill name inside that file must be lowercase with hyphens, and the total upload cannot exceed 100 MB.

Google supports plain-text formats including Markdown, JSON, YAML, CSV, HTML, CSS, Python, and shell files, along with PDFs and images. Binary office files such as .docx and .xlsx are not supported. Export only the needed material as PDF or plain text.

brand-review/
├── SKILL.md
├── brand-guidelines.pdf
├── approved-terms.csv
└── examples/
    ├── good.md
    └── avoid.md

Scripts can be included, but scripts that require internet access or make requests to external websites are not supported. Although .env is listed as a supported text format, do not upload real keys or tokens. Use placeholder variable names only.

Completion check: Review the imported name, description, instructions, and reference-file list before choosing Create. To change reference files later, upload the complete skill and its files again through Replace skill rather than assuming you can append one file.

Test direct use, automatic use, and stacking

An activated skill can be selected directly with / or @, applied automatically when Gemini judges it relevant, or combined with other skills. Test each mode separately. A good automatic-use description should trigger on the intended work but stay out of unrelated questions.

If a skill activates too broadly, narrow its description with explicit use and exclusion conditions. You can also deactivate it from the Skills page and invoke it only when needed. Google allows any number of created skills, but only 100 can be active at one time.

Manually recreate a Gem as a Skill

Open the Gem editor and preserve its name, description, and instructions.
Download each Knowledge file and place the files in a new lowercase, hyphenated folder.
In another tab, open Customize → Skills → Create manually, copy the Gem’s fields, and create the skill.
If files are required, download the new skill and move its SKILL.md from the ZIP into the folder containing the Gem files.
Choose Replace skill and upload the folder containing both SKILL.md and the references.
Run the same input through the Gem and the Skill. Compare formatting, prohibited behavior, and use of reference material.

You can wait for automatic migration, but Google says converted Gems will appear as inactive draft skills. Creators must review and activate them. Google plans to preserve names, descriptions, custom instructions, supported knowledge files, and applicable sharing permissions, but important Gems should still be tested before a deadline.

Google Workspace Updates notice dated October 13, 2026 stating that the Workspace launch of Gemini Skills is delayed — The Workspace launch of Skills is currently delayed. Source: Google Workspace Updates, checked October 14, 2026.

What Workspace users should do now

Google originally listed October 13 as the start of a gradual Gemini-app rollout for Workspace users. The official Workspace update now says the Workspace launch is delayed, and it does not provide a restart date. Do not treat availability in a personal account as proof that an organization account should already have the same menu.

If the menu is absent in a work account, monitor the official restart announcement.
Inventory high-priority Gems, their instructions, knowledge files, owners, and any Workspace Studio flows that use them.
Plan separate copies where a skill is needed in both Gemini and Workspace because the two surfaces do not currently sync skills.
New Workspace Studio flows can no longer add an Ask a Gem step, so identify replacement work for existing flows.
Administrators should review retention, sharing, and external-file policies before encouraging broad adoption.

The currently stated retirement windows are November 2026 for personal accounts, no sooner than March 1, 2027 for business, enterprise, and nonprofit accounts, and no sooner than June 1, 2027 for education. Recheck the official documentation before migration because the delayed rollout can change later milestones.

Three practical workflows

Combine brand voice with factual review

Create one skill for tone and approved terminology and another for evidence checks. Invoke both with a product description and official source material. Require the result to separate title, summary, draft, and items that need verification. Review for invented numbers and violations of the brand rules.

Turn meeting notes into a decision record

Define sections for decisions, rationale, owners, deadlines, and unresolved questions. Instruct the skill to mark missing owners or dates as “confirmation required” instead of guessing. Compare the result with the original notes to make sure proposals were not promoted into decisions.

Standardize customer-response drafts

Add an approved policy PDF and a few response examples. Require questions involving refunds, security, or personal data to be escalated instead of answered with unsupported certainty. Because a skill does not itself send an external message, treat the result as a draft that a person reviews before delivery.

Current limits and troubleshooting

No Skills menu: Check the personal-account, age, and Keep Activity requirements, then allow for gradual rollout. For work accounts, follow the Workspace delay notice.
Upload fails: Check for a root-level SKILL.md, lowercase hyphenated naming, the 100 MB limit, hidden files such as .DS_Store or .pyc, and unsupported binary documents.
A feature cannot be combined: Skills do not currently work with Canvas, Deep Research, Create video, Create music, Guided Learning, and several other Gem tools.
Automatic use is too aggressive: Add explicit trigger and exclusion conditions, or deactivate the skill and invoke it directly.
Gemini and Workspace behave differently: Manage separate versions and references because skills do not currently sync across those surfaces.

A safe move from Gems to Skills is not about deleting Gems quickly. It is about breaking repeated instructions into small, testable units. Personal-account users can validate direct and automatic use now, while organizations should inventory critical Gems and flows, wait for the Workspace launch to resume, and confirm administrative policy before wider deployment.

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Official sources

Sources checked: October 14, 2026

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