IBM watsonx Orchestrate provides us a broad range of skills that can simplify and help us to get our work done quickly. In addition to the pre-built and custom imported skills, we can also create useful skills (workflow, decision, generative AI, etc) in skill studio project and publish them to use. In this blog, I would like to share some of my experience on how to resolve or workaround problems I sometimes hit when working with skills in studio project. Keep in mind the product is evolving, so what I mention in this blog might no longer be true over time. But still, I hope this kind of hints and tips (if they still apply) can help you to work around your issues quickly.
Publish failing
There could be many reasons why publish is failing. It could be that a document type variable has been added or removed as input or output variable (a known limitation documented in https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=notes-known-issues-limitations) since the last publish, or it could be that the skill has been for some reason published before under different settings. What I usually do is to check if there is an existing skill in the skill catalog, and if that existing skill is meant to be replaced, I will just remove the existing skill from the skill catalog and then do the publish again. The publish usually will be successful after the removal of the existing skill in the skill catalog.
Collaborator previewing workflow task not able to load the task or not seeing the latest task UI
When previewing and testing task in workflow skill with collaborator, if the collaborator not able to load the task or not seeing the latest changes you made to the task UI when claiming the task to work on, make sure you have share your project with the collaborator and make sure the collaborator can see the latest code when opening the project. It is usually missing one of these and making sure the above will have the problem fix.
Not seeing the skill with user type input or output variable in skill catalog after publish
This is a known current limitation (https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=notes-known-issues-limitations). Skill in studio project that has user type input or output variable will not be published as skill to skill catalog.
Workflow skill having problem invoking other skill
As of the writing of this blog, any skill invoked by workflow skill needs to be included in your personal skillset. If your workflow fails when invoking other skill, check and make sure the other skill is in your personal skillset. I found this help resolve the issue most of the time.
Trouble adding skill to be used in workflow
Sometimes I am hitting error saying skill cannot be used when trying to add a skill to my workflow, e.g., some custom imported skill I created myself. The error usually will tell us why the skill cannot be used. This link https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=workflows-limitations-when-calling-skills gives a great guideline of the current limitations and I use that a lot to avoid hitting issue in my custom imported skill for example.
As I mentioned in the beginning, the product keeps evolving, so the above might or might not apply over time. The best is to check https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/current?topic=notes-known-issues-limitations when hitting any issue. It will help save you time most of the time.
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