Cowork: skills visible in Customize but not loaded in chat (context budget)

UX Issue: Skills Show in Customize but Not in Chat

Description

When a plugin has multiple skills, all skills appear in the Customize panel, but only a subset (typically 2 out of 9) appear as available in chat. This creates confusion — users see skills listed but can't use them.

Root Cause (Suspected)

Context budget constraint. Cowork appears to allocate approximately 1% of the context window (~8,000 characters) for loading skill descriptions. Skills that exceed the budget are silently excluded from chat.

Suggestion

1. Display a message in Customize indicating which skills are loaded vs. budget-excluded
2. Consider a "load more skills" mechanism or user-selectable skill prioritization
3. Document the context budget constraint for plugin authors

Workaround

Keep skill descriptions under 200 characters with key terms front-loaded. This increases the number of skills that fit within the budget.

Environment

• Cowork desktop app (macOS)
• Plugin with 9 skills, each with descriptions ranging 120-230 characters