💎Transfer your Gems to Skills in 3, 2, 1! ⚙️
If you know me, you know my love for Gemini Gems! I’ve had so much fun working with many of you to create Choose Your Own Adventure style Gems, daily math warm-up Gems, and Gems that use familiar K–5 STEM lessons to teach AI literacy.
Now, Google is transitioning from Gems to Skills, and Skills are starting to arrive in education accounts! Have no fear, fellow Gem aficionados: Google says Gems in Workspace for Education won’t go away before June 1, 2027, and remaining Gems will automatically transition to draft Skills. But if you’re ready to start exploring now, here’s how to manually recreate your favorites. There’s also a Gemini-powered creation option, which I’ve had good luck with!
Step 1: Gather Your Gem Information & Files
Open your browser and go to gemini.google.com.
Click Open Sidebar at the top, then select Gems.
Find the Gem you want to recreate and click Edit next to it.
If your Gem has files attached under "Knowledge":
Click on each file to open it, then click Download at the top.
On your computer, create a new folder. Name it using all lowercase letters with hyphens between words to match your skill name (for example: my-new-skill).
Move all your downloaded knowledge files into this new folder.
Keep this browser tab open and move on to Step 2!
Step 2: Set Up the New Skill
Open a new tab in your browser and go back to gemini.google.com.
In the sidebar, navigate to Settings -> Skills.
Near the top of the Skills page, click Create manually.
Copy and paste the Name, Description, and Instructions from your open Gem tab into the corresponding fields for your new Skill.
Note: Your Skill’s name will automatically adjust to the required lowercase format.
At the top of the page, click Create.
No knowledge files? You’re done!
If your Gem didn't use any attached knowledge files, congratulations—you're all done! If you do have knowledge files to attach, continue to Step 3.
Step 3: Bundle Your Knowledge Files & Finalize
On the Skills page, hover over the Skill you just created, click Skill actions (the three dots), and select Download.
This will download a .zip file containing a file named SKILL.md.
Open the .zip file on your computer and move the SKILL.md file into the folder you created in Step 1 alongside your downloaded Gem files.
Return to the Skills page in your browser. Hover over your Skill again and click Skill actions -> Replace skill.
In the upload prompt, select Folder.
Choose the folder containing your SKILL.md file and your knowledge files.
Important check: Make sure the folder name matches your Skill name exactly.
Click Upload, then confirm by clicking Upload again.
Before you call it done, give your new Skill a familiar prompt and check that it responds the way you expect—especially if it uses knowledge files.
How to Use Your New Skill (And What to Expect Next!)
One of the best things about Skills is how seamless they are to access. You no longer need to navigate away to a separate Gem workspace! From anywhere in Gemini, simply type / or @ followed by your skill name (e.g., /my-new-skill or @my-new-skill) right into the prompt bar to trigger it instantly.
The main drawback right now is that Skills cannot be shared directly with colleagues or students yet like Gems could. However, Google has signaled that sharing functionality should be coming to Skills in a future update (hopefully soon!), so stay tuned! 💎 So long, Gems! It was fun, but we're officially entering our Skills Era. 🪩