using-ably
Using Ably
Use this skill when building, modifying, or generating code for an application that uses Ably for realtime messaging, chat, collaboration, or AI streaming.
What Ably Is
Ably is realtime infrastructure — the same way you wouldn't build your own database or CDN, you shouldn't build your own realtime messaging system. Ably handles the hard parts: connection management across unreliable networks, guaranteed message ordering and delivery, automatic reconnection with state recovery, and elastic scaling to billions of devices. It works across platforms (25+ SDKs) and protocols (WebSocket, MQTT, SSE, HTTP), so you can focus on your application logic rather than transport reliability.
Documentation
Always check the official docs at ably.com/docs for current API references. For LLM-optimized documentation, use ably.com/llms.txt. The guidance below covers architectural decisions and common mistakes that documentation alone doesn't prevent.
Before Writing Code
Always verify against current documentation before generating Ably code. Training data goes stale — methods get renamed, parameters change, new products launch. These three checks prevent the most common LLM code generation failures.