Copilot Skills Manager

Browse, install, and manage GitHub Copilot agent skills directly from VS Code.

What are Skills?

Skills are instructions that tell GitHub Copilot how to help with specific tasks in your project — things like how to run tests, deploy code, or follow your team's conventions. Once installed, Copilot reads them automatically from your workspace.

Getting Started

Step 1 — Install the Extension

Install Copilot Skills Manager from the VS Code Marketplace.

Step 2 — Open a Workspace

Open a project folder in VS Code. Skills will be installed into that workspace.

Step 3 — Load Skills from GitHub

1. Click the Copilot Skills icon in the Activity Bar (left panel)
2. Click Load Skills from GitHub Repo (cloud icon in the sidebar)
3. Paste a GitHub repository URL, e.g.:

   https://github.com/darshanmoradiya/copilot-skills
   

Step 4 — Pick and Install

A panel opens with all available skills. Use the search bar or sort dropdown to find what you need. Check the skills you want and click Install Selected.

Step 5 — Use with Copilot

That's it! Copilot will automatically discover and use the installed skills from your workspace's .github/skills/ directory when you chat with it.

Managing Installed Skills

The Skills Explorer sidebar shows every installed skill grouped by source repository.

• 🔃 Refresh — click the refresh icon in the sidebar header
• 🗑️ Uninstall — right-click a skill → Uninstall Skill → confirm

Skill Structure

A valid skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

.github/skills/
└── my-skill/
    └── SKILL.md          ← required
    └── any-other-files   ← optional

SKILL.md template:

---
name: my-skill
description: A short description of what this skill does.
---

# My Skill

Detailed instructions for Copilot go here. You can use markdown freely.

[!TIP] The name and description fields in the YAML frontmatter are required. description is displayed in the extension's skill picker.

Settings

To add a GitHub token: open Settings (Ctrl+,), search for copilotSkills.githubToken, and paste your token.
Generate one at: github.com/settings/tokens (no scopes needed for public repos).

Commands

Troubleshooting

No skills found in this repository → The repo must have skill folders (containing SKILL.md) under a path like .github/skills/, .agents/skills/, or any directory with "skill" in its name.

GitHub API rate limit exceeded → Add a GitHub token in settings (copilotSkills.githubToken). This raises your limit from 60 to 5,000 requests/hour.

Skills not appearing in Copilot → Verify the SKILL.md file exists and has valid YAML frontmatter. Restart VS Code after installing new skills.

Install fails partway through → The extension automatically rolls back any partially written files. No cleanup needed.

For Contributors

git clone https://github.com/darshanmoradiya/copilot-skills
cd copilot-skills
npm install
# Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host

Release Notes

0.0.2

• Fixed uninstall command error when triggered from the context menu
• Improved error messages (rate limits, overwrite warnings, partial install rollback)

0.0.1

• Initial release: browse and install skills from GitHub, Skills Explorer sidebar, GitHub token support

Enjoy using Copilot Skills Manager!