Agent skill

Release

by PowerShell in PowerShell/vscode-powershell

Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Release

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .claude/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .claude/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

$skill-installer

$skill-installer install https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release

Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .agents/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .agents/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .cursor/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .cursor/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

gemini skills install

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git --path .github/skills/release

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .gemini/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.

Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .gemini/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release

Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .github/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.

GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .github/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install PowerShell/vscode-powershell release --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/release .opencode/skills/release && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "release" agent skill from https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/tree/main/.github/skills/release into .opencode/skills/release/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "release", then confirm the skill loads.

OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

Facts

Skill name: release
GitHub stars: 1.9k
Token cost: ~1.1k tokens
SKILL.md length: 584 words
Files: 1
Skills in repo: 3
Repo updated: Aug 21, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: MIT

At a glance

Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension.

Works in 5 steps: Prep → GitHub release PRs → Mirror to ADO → …
Asked to prepare a release
SKILL.md covers Phase 1 — Prep, Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs, Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO and Phase 4 — Signed pipelines, plus 1 more section
Calls git, gh and az

What it does

Release is an agent skill from PowerShell/vscode-powershell. Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension. Use when asked to prepare a release, update the version, or create a release PR.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development. It works with PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, GitHub and Git. The repository describes itself as: Provides PowerShell language and debugging support for Visual Studio Code. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

Asked to prepare a release
Update the version
Create a release PR

Example prompts

“/release”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

Prep
GitHub release PRs
Mirror to ADO
Signed pipelines
Publish GitHub releases (manual)

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9c59338. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
- git
- gh
- az
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, gh and az, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Release loads about 1.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 39 tokens; SKILL.md has 584 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~39
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~1.1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from PowerShell/vscode-powershell at commit 9c59338, republished under its MIT licence (© PowerShell). 584 words, ~1,132 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/release/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).

name: release
description: Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension. Use when asked to prepare a release, update the version, or create a release PR.

Release Process

Read docs/development.md "Creating a Release" and "Versioning" first — this skill only adds the agent-specific deltas.

Memory entries this skill depends on (load before starting):

release infrastructure — ADO org, project, and pipeline IDs.
release maintainers — the GitHub PR reviewer and the ADO release approver (two different people).

PSES leads the extension at every step: its module is embedded in the signed extension build, so its release must land before the corresponding vscode-powershell action.

Phase 1 — Prep

Sync main in both ../PowerShellEditorServices and vscode-powershell: git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main.
Propose version + summary. In each repo run git log --oneline $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD, summarize user-visible changes, apply the rules from docs/development.md "Versioning", and confirm both versions and one-line summaries with the user before continuing.

Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs

Run updateVersion.ps1 in PSES first, then vscode-powershell:

git checkout -B release
pwsh -NoProfile -c '$env:GIT_EDITOR="true"; ./tools/updateVersion.ps1 -Version "<version>" -Changes "<summary>"'

Push and open PRs. git push origin release, then open a PR to main via the GitHub MCP create_pull_request tool. Title is the commit subject (v<version>: <summary>). DM the GitHub PR reviewer on Teams with both PR links.
Enable auto-squash-merge on both PRs: gh pr merge --repo <owner>/<repo> <number> --squash --auto.
Wait for both PRs to merge (gh pr view ... --json state,statusCheckRollup). Don't busy-loop — check, report, pause if it'll be a while.

Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO

Sync main and push to ADO upstream in both repos (PSES first). The verify step must print the release commit subject (v<version>: <summary>); if it doesn't, the PR hasn't merged yet — stop and wait.
sh
```
git checkout main && git pull --ff-only origin main
git log -1 --format=%s
git push ado HEAD:upstream
```
Open upstream → main PRs in ADO with auto-complete enabled. The current ado MCP server doesn't reach our org, so use az (org/project from memory). Title is always Integrate upstream changes. Use merge commit (preserves GitHub history) and keep the upstream branch (re-pushed every release):
sh
```
az repos pr create --org <org> --project <project> --repository <repo> \
  --source-branch upstream --target-branch main \
  --title "Integrate upstream changes" --description "Integrate v<version> from GitHub upstream."
az repos pr update --org <org> --id <pr-id> \
  --auto-complete true --squash false --delete-source-branch false
```
DM the ADO release approver on Teams with both ADO PR links.
Wait for both ADO PRs to complete (az repos pr show --org <org> --id <pr-id> --query status returns completed). Auto-complete merges them once policy checks pass; phase 4 builds against refs/heads/main and will produce the wrong version if main hasn't been updated yet.

Show full SKILL.md (156 more words)Show less

Phase 4 — Signed pipelines

Each pipeline pauses at a manual approval stage before publishing. Notify the user when each one reaches it. Use a detached watcher (az pipelines runs show --id <run-id>) so polling survives across turns.

Queue the PSES pipeline on refs/heads/main with template parameters Release=True OfficialBuild=True. Notify the user when it reaches the approval stage, then wait for result == succeeded. On success the pipeline creates a draft GitHub Release in PSES.
Queue the vscode-powershell pipeline the same way. Notify the user at its approval stage. On success the pipeline creates a draft GitHub Release in vscode-powershell and publishes the extension to the VS Code marketplace.

Phase 5 — Publish GitHub releases (manual)

For each draft GitHub Release (PSES and vscode-powershell), populate the body via gh release edit v<version> --repo <owner>/<repo> --generate-notes. Send the user links to both drafts for review; they publish them manually. The marketplace push already happened in step 11.

Files

Just SKILL.md in .github/skills/release of PowerShell/vscode-powershell.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9c59338

Compare with similar skills

Release next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Release compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
Release this skillPowerShell/vscode-powershell	1.9k	—	~1.1k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	1 mo ago
Git Worktree Managermicrosoft/WindowsAppSDK	4.7k	—	~2k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today
Find Regression Riskdotnet/maui	23k	—	~1.1k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today
Releasequerylenshq/ef-querylens	225	—	~887	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	1 mo ago
Tendril ReleaseIvy-Interactive/Ivy-Tendril	200	—	~2k	Automated safety check: Pass	Custom licence	22 days ago
Contributor-First PR MergeHKUDS/OpenHarness	16k	1 repos	~847	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	4 mo ago

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Questions about Release

What does Release do?

Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension. Release is an agent skill from PowerShell/vscode-powershell. Guide for preparing a release of the PowerShell VS Code extension.

When should I use Release?

Release fits situations like: asked to prepare a release; update the version; create a release PR.

How do I install Release in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/release in PowerShell/vscode-powershell) into .claude/skills/release in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Release in Codex?

Run `npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/release in PowerShell/vscode-powershell) into .agents/skills/release in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Release in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add PowerShell/vscode-powershell --skill release -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/release, .gemini/skills/release, .github/skills/release and .opencode/skills/release in your project.

What does Release need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Release needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git, gh and az).

Does Release access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use git and gh, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Release safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Release use?

Release is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Release use?

About 1.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Release?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Release: Git Worktree Manager (microsoft/WindowsAppSDK, 4.7k stars), Find Regression Risk (dotnet/maui, 23k stars), Release (querylenshq/ef-querylens, 225 stars) and Tendril Release (Ivy-Interactive/Ivy-Tendril, 200 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Release?

PowerShell (a GitHub organization) maintains it in PowerShell/vscode-powershell, which has 1,912 GitHub stars. The repository holds 3 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 21, 2026.

Source: PowerShell/vscode-powershell on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

Release

Install Release

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Release Process

Phase 1 — Prep

Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs

Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO

Phase 4 — Signed pipelines

Phase 5 — Publish GitHub releases (manual)

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

Git Worktree Manager

Find Regression Risk

Release

Tendril Release

Contributor-First PR Merge

Create Pull Request

More from PowerShell/vscode-powershell

Interactive Extension Testing

Update npm Packages

Questions about Release

Install Release

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Release Process

Phase 1 — Prep

Phase 2 — GitHub release PRs

Phase 3 — Mirror to ADO

Phase 4 — Signed pipelines

Phase 5 — Publish GitHub releases (manual)

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

More from PowerShell/vscode-powershell

Related

Questions about Release