Reuse prompts with skills
Save a prompt that works — with its settings and reference images — as a skill your whole team can reuse, and know when to use a prompt template or AI writing instructions.
A skill is a prompt card setup you can use again and again: the prompt, the negative prompt, the model settings, reference images and, for images, a file-naming rule. Once saved, anyone in the workspace can apply it in one click from Skills.
The skills panel
Choose Skills in the left rail:
- Built-in: skills Zalify provides, such as product on white, lifestyle scene, flat lay, and a 30-second product video from a single image. Built-in skills can't be changed.
- Team: skills people in your workspace have saved, shared with everyone.
Each skill shows whether it's for images or video, its description, its reference thumbnails and its file-naming rule. Skills marked AI use AI writing instructions.
Apply a skill
Select an image or an image group on the board.
Click the skill. Canvas adds a ready-made prompt card to the right of your selection and wires it in. The skill's own reference images are added to the board too, ahead of your selection.
Check the prompt and settings, then generate. If you selected a group, the card runs over every picture in it — see Image groups and batch processing.
With nothing selected, the card appears near the top of your view and you can wire images in afterwards. {product} in the prompt becomes "the product from the attached reference photo" once a reference is wired in; until then it shows as a placeholder you can edit.
Example pictures a skill brings along have a Replace image button at the top right: replace them from the library, from Shopify products or from your phone, and their wires stay in place.
Two kinds of skill
| Kind | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt template | A written prompt, with {product} standing in for the product | Reliable results where only the product changes |
| AI writing instructions | Tells the AI how to write the prompt from the references, fresh each time | Work that needs a new idea per picture, such as video scripts |
When you apply an AI writing instructions skill, the card shows The AI is writing the prompt from the skill… and can't be edited until it's done. The AI looks at the skill's references, your selected picture and your workspace's Brand Kit — and the product details, if the picture came from Shopify. Each write is one AI charge.
Once the prompt is written, four quick revision buttons appear under it. Each revision is one AI charge:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Portrait | Re-cuts it for a 9:16 vertical frame |
| Faster | Shorter shots and a hook in the first 2 seconds, same total length |
| Add voice-over | Adds a short voice-over line across 2–3 shots |
| New concept | Keeps the product, look, length and frame, and swaps the creative idea |
Save a skill
From a prompt card: choose Save as skill on an image or video prompt card. The prompt, negative prompt, settings and the wired-in references (up to 4, in row order) are saved together. Skills saved from a card are prompt templates.
From the panel: on the Team tab, choose New image skill or New video skill, then pick Prompt template or AI writing instructions.
The form has:
- Name (required) and Description.
- Prompt (template) or Instructions (AI writing instructions). Paste a shared skill.md into an empty instructions box and a leading name and description fill in the fields above.
- Avoid: the negative prompt.
- File naming: image skills only, for batch file names — see Image groups and batch processing.
- Reference images: the images wired into the card; you can remove them here.
When you save a prompt template with references, Canvas rewrites the prompt once around them: the parts describing that specific product become {product}, so the skill works for other products too (a small AI charge). Choose Restore original if you'd rather keep your wording.
Edit and delete
Team skills have edit and delete buttons for anyone with edit permission.
Deleting a skill doesn't ask for confirmation, and nobody on the team can use it afterwards.