Skills

Install skills in GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot looks for skills in .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/ in a project, and in ~/.copilot/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/ for all your projects.

Where GitHub Copilot looks for skills

This project

  • .github/skills/
  • .claude/skills/
  • .agents/skills/

All projects

  • ~/.copilot/skills/
  • ~/.agents/skills/

Source: docs.github.com (opens in a new tab), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Install a skill

  1. Copy the skill's folder, with its SKILL.md at the top, into .github/skills/ in your project, or into ~/.copilot/skills/ for all your projects.
  2. Keep the folder named exactly as the name field in its SKILL.md, as the Agent Skills spec asks.
  3. Or use the Copilot & VS Code tab on any skill's page here: its commands copy that skill at the commit we checked.

Watch out for

  • gh skill install (GitHub CLI 2.90 or later, in preview) installs a given tag or commit with name@version, or with --pin, which also stops gh skill update from changing it.
  • GitHub says the folders each surface reads differ, so do not assume a personal skill reaches Copilot cloud agent.
  • In a running Copilot CLI session, run /skills reload after adding a skill.
  • GitHub warns that pre-approving shell or bash in allowed-tools lets a skill run terminal commands without asking.

Where every other agent looks for skills