Overview
Copilot Dashboard adds a dedicated Activity Bar view that shows the Copilot customization files available in your workspace and selected user-level folders. It gives you a single place to inspect custom agents, instructions, prompts, skills, hooks, and MCP servers, then open any file with one click.
The extension is built as a lightweight webview-backed explorer for teams working with Copilot customization primitives and VS Code agent workflows.
[!NOTE]
The current version focuses on discovery and navigation. It does not edit, validate, or generate customization files from the dashboard itself.
Features
- Dedicated Copilot Dashboard view in the Activity Bar.
- Scans workspace and selected user-level Copilot customization locations.
- Groups results by type: agents, instructions, prompts, skills, hooks, and MCP servers.
- Shows item counts, descriptions, file locations, and model metadata when available.
- Opens files directly from the dashboard.
- Refresh command in the view title to rescan the workspace.
- Works with standard
.github/ conventions and common Copilot file layouts.
What It Scans
Workspace files
| Type |
Locations |
| Agents |
.github/agents/*.md, .github/agents/*.agent.md, .claude/agents/*.md |
| Instructions |
**/*.instructions.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md |
| Prompts |
.github/prompts/*.prompt.md |
| Skills |
.github/skills/*/SKILL.md |
| Hooks |
.github/hooks/*.json |
| MCP servers |
mcp.json, .vscode/mcp.json |
User-level files
| Type |
Locations |
| Agents |
~/.copilot/agents/*.md |
| Skills |
~/.copilot/skills/*/SKILL.md |
[!TIP]
Instructions are discovered broadly across the workspace, so the dashboard can surface both conventional .github/instructions/*.instructions.md files and custom instruction files stored elsewhere in the repo.
Getting Started
Use the extension locally
- Install dependencies:
npm install
- Start the TypeScript watcher:
npm run watch
- Press
F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.
- In the new window, open a workspace that contains Copilot customization files.
- Select the Copilot Dashboard icon in the Activity Bar.
- Expand a section and click a file entry to open it.
Use the dashboard
The dashboard presents a compact stats grid at the top, followed by collapsible sections for each customization type. Sections containing items open by default, and the refresh action rescans the workspace when files change.
Development
Stack
- VS Code extension API
- TypeScript
- Webview UI rendered from
src/extension.ts
- ESLint for linting
@vscode/test-cli and @vscode/test-electron for extension tests
Scripts
npm run compile
npm run watch
npm run lint
npm test
Project shape
src/
extension.ts
test/
extension.test.ts
media/
icon.svg
Notes
- Requires VS Code
^1.110.0.
- The extension currently contributes one Activity Bar container, one webview view, and one refresh command.
- There are no contributed settings yet.
- Test coverage is still at the starter-template stage, so behavior is currently documented more thoroughly than it is automated.
