GitHub Copilot skills. Where they live and how to install them.

What skills are in GitHub Copilot

GitHub describes agent skills as folders of instructions, scripts and resources that Copilot loads when they are relevant to a task. Per GitHub's documentation they work with the Copilot cloud agent, Copilot code review, the GitHub Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot app, and agent mode in Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs. Copilot chooses a skill from your prompt and the skill's description. When it does, it injects the SKILL.md into the agent's context and can use the scripts and examples in the same folder.

GitHub's documented frontmatter is name (lowercase, hyphens), description, an optional license, and an optional allowed-tools that pre-approves tools. VS Code documents extra fields such as user-invocable, disable-model-invocation and context: fork.

Where Copilot looks for skills

VS Code's documentation also lists ~/.claude/skills as a personal location. Each skill gets its own subdirectory, such as .github/skills/webapp-testing.

Install a skill

The examples use frontend-design from anthropics/skills, located at skills/frontend-design.

Option 1: GitHub CLI

gh skill is GitHub's own installer. It is in public preview and needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later. By default it installs for Copilot at project scope.

gh skill search design
gh skill preview anthropics/skills frontend-design
gh skill install anthropics/skills frontend-design

Add --scope user for a personal install. To pin a version, use @TAG, @SHA or --pin, but not both together. gh skill preview renders the SKILL.md and file tree without installing anything, which is worth doing for any repository you have not used before.

Option 2: the skills CLI

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design -a github-copilot

This installs into .agents/skills/ in the project. Add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Option 3: copy the folder

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git skills-src
mkdir -p .github/skills
cp -r skills-src/skills/frontend-design .github/skills/frontend-design
rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ for a personal skill. Commit .github/skills so the cloud agent and code review can find it.

Check that it loaded

• VS Code: type /skills in the chat input to open the Configure Skills menu, or open the gear icon and the Skills tab. Skills also appear in the / menu.
• Copilot CLI: run /skills list, then /skills info frontend-design to see its location. You can also ask "What skills do you have?" To use one, name it with a slash in your prompt: "Use the /frontend-design skill to ...".
• Cloud agent and code review: the documentation describes no list to open. Copilot picks the skill from the task. For code review, a review-focused folder name such as code-review makes use more likely.

Update and remove

• gh skill update checks for upstream changes using provenance metadata that gh skill install wrote into the skill's frontmatter. gh skill update --all updates everything, and pinned skills are skipped until you reinstall them with a new --pin.
• In Copilot CLI, /skills remove SKILL-DIRECTORY removes a skill you added directly, and /skills lets you enable or disable one. The copilot skill subcommand covers list, add, remove, enable and disable from the shell.
• Otherwise delete the folder, or use npx skills update and npx skills remove.

Troubleshooting

• The skill is not offered: check the file is named exactly SKILL.md and sits in its own subdirectory under one of the folders above.
• In Copilot CLI, you added a skill mid-session: run /skills reload instead of restarting.
• You want the cloud agent to use it: the skill has to be in the repository, since your personal folders on your machine are not part of the cloud agent's checkout.
• gh skill is not found: update GitHub CLI to 2.90.0 or later.
• A skill asks for shell in allowed-tools: leave it out unless you trust the skill completely, so Copilot keeps asking before it runs terminal commands.

Safety

GitHub warns that skills are not verified by GitHub and may contain prompt injections, hidden instructions or malicious scripts, and says to inspect a skill before installing it. Pre-approving the shell or bash tools in allowed-tools removes the confirmation step for terminal commands, so only do that for skills and scripts you have reviewed and fully trust.