Skills

Skills are reusable, composable capabilities that extend GitHub Copilot Chat with specialized knowledge and workflows.

What are Skills?

Skills provide:

• Specialized knowledge for specific domains (e.g., .NET testing, dependency management)
• Structured workflows for common development tasks
• Tool permissions to control what actions a skill can perform
• Progressive disclosure with references for advanced scenarios

Skill Structure

Skills are defined in .github/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md:

.github/
└── skills/
    └── dotnet-test/
        ├── SKILL.md                    # Main skill definition
        └── references/
            ├── theory-parameter-filtering.md
            ├── blame-mode.md
            └── parallel-execution.md

Available Skills

Skill	Purpose
research	Comprehensive research with source analysis
dotnet-run-file	Run C# scripts without project files
dotnet-test	Selective .NET test execution
dotnet-dependency	Investigate and manage NuGet dependencies

Installing Skills

Skills can be installed to ~/.copilot/skills/ for use across all projects.

Using the Install Script

# List available skills
./scripts/install-skills.sh --list

# Install all skills
./scripts/install-skills.sh --all

# Install specific skills
./scripts/install-skills.sh dotnet-test dotnet-dependency

PowerShell (Windows):

.\scripts\install-skills.ps1 -List
.\scripts\install-skills.ps1 -All
.\scripts\install-skills.ps1 dotnet-test, dotnet-dependency

Manual Installation

Copy skill folders to ~/.copilot/skills/.

Skill Frontmatter

---
name: skill-name
description: When to trigger this skill
allowed-tools: Bash(pattern), Read, Grep, Glob
---

• name: Skill identifier
• description: Used by Copilot to determine when to invoke
• allowed-tools: Restricts tool access for security