Agent skills marketplaces › GitHub Copilot skills
GitHub Copilot skills: where to find them and how to install them
GitHub Copilot uses Agent Skills in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot app and the cloud agent. Put skills in .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ in a repository, or ~/.copilot/skills/ for yourself. Get them from github/awesome-copilot (463 skills), with gh skill install, from VS Code's Customization Marketplace, or with npx skills add -a github-copilot. GitHub verifies none of them.
Where Copilot runs skills
| Surface | Skills | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot CLI | Project and personal folders; /skills reload after adding one | All Copilot plans |
| VS Code agent mode | Project and personal folders, the Customization Marketplace, plugins, extensions | IDE support depends on the version |
| Visual Studio, JetBrains | Agent mode, by IDE version | See Copilot's feature matrix |
| Cloud agent and code review on GitHub.com | Project skills in the repo; personal ones only from .copilot/skills in your dotfiles repo | Paid Copilot plans |
The folders: .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ in the repository, and ~/.copilot/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/ at home. Because Copilot reads .claude/skills/, a repo set up for Claude Code works in Copilot as is. GitHub's docs warn that supported locations depend on the surface, so check before assuming a personal skill reaches a cloud session.
Where to get Copilot skills
| Source | What it is | How you install |
|---|---|---|
| awesome-copilot | GitHub's community collection: 463 skill folders on November 13, plus agents, instructions, hooks and plugins; a searchable site at awesome-copilot.github.com | copilot plugin install <plugin>@awesome-copilot (already registered in Copilot CLI and VS Code), or copy a skill folder |
gh skill | GitHub CLI command (public preview, 2.90.0+) for any repository's skills | gh skill search TOPIC, gh skill preview OWNER/REPO SKILL, gh skill install OWNER/REPO SKILL |
| VS Code Customization Marketplace | Preview; on by default. The experimental GitHub Feed source searches skills, and plugin marketplaces appear as sources too | Agent Customizations editor › Browse; review publisher, source and files; Install |
| VS Code extensions | Extensions can ship skills through the chatSkills contribution point | Installing the extension adds them |
| skills.sh | Vercel's cross-agent directory and CLI | npx skills add owner/repo -a github-copilot: .agents/skills/, or ~/.copilot/skills/ with -g |
| anthropics/skills | Anthropic's example and document skills; GitHub's docs point to it | gh skill install anthropics/skills to browse and pick, or copy |
For the other side of the market (Anthropic's and OpenAI's catalogs, graded directories, paid skills), see the full marketplace comparison. Cursor users have a parallel guide: Cursor skills.
What's in awesome-copilot
It's the closest thing Copilot has to a home catalog: a GitHub-owned repository (41,134 stars, updated the day this was read) of community contributions, with a website that searches and filters them. Skills there are written with Copilot in mind, and several are popular beyond it: playwright-generate-test had 18.2K installs through the skills CLI. The repo's own warning applies to all of it: the customizations "are sourced from third-party developers. Please inspect any agent and its documentation before installing."
Installing one, start to finish
gh skill search playwright
gh skill preview github/awesome-copilot playwright-generate-test
gh skill install github/awesome-copilot playwright-generate-testgh skill preview renders the SKILL.md and the file tree in your terminal without installing anything; read it, and open any script it lists. To do it by hand, create .github/skills/<name>/, put the SKILL.md and its files inside, and commit it so teammates and the cloud agent get it. In Copilot CLI, run /skills reload; in VS Code, type / in chat to see it.
Skills or custom instructions?
VS Code's docs draw the line: custom instructions (.github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md) set coding guidelines that apply to every request; skills are capabilities and workflows, with scripts and examples, that load when a task matches. Coding style belongs in instructions; "how we cut a release" belongs in a skill. A skill can also act as a slash command, and the user-invocable and disable-model-invocation fields control whether you, Copilot or both can start it.
Before you install
GitHub's docs say it bluntly: skills "are not verified by GitHub and may contain prompt injections, hidden instructions, or malicious scripts." Preview first, install per repository rather than globally, and review skills in pull requests like code. The ten checks are in Are agent skills safe?
Zest's VS Code extension, from the company that publishes this site, records which skills, models and tools each Copilot Chat session in VS Code uses, so a team can see which installed skills earn their place; it isn't a marketplace. Zest
Questions
Does GitHub Copilot support agent skills?
Yes. Copilot uses Agent Skills in the GitHub Copilot app, Copilot CLI, the cloud agent and code review on GitHub.com, and agent mode in VS Code, Visual Studio and JetBrains IDEs. Support in each IDE depends on its version.
Where do Copilot skills go?
Project skills go in .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ in the repository, one folder per skill with a SKILL.md inside. Personal skills go in ~/.copilot/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/.
What is gh skill?
A GitHub CLI command, in public preview from version 2.90.0, that searches, previews, installs, updates and publishes agent skills from GitHub repositories: gh skill search, gh skill preview owner/repo skill, gh skill install owner/repo skill.
Are awesome-copilot skills safe?
They're community contributions, and the repository asks you to inspect anything before installing. GitHub's docs say skills are not verified by GitHub and may contain prompt injections, hidden instructions or malicious scripts; use gh skill preview to read one first.
Which Copilot plan do skills need?
Skills work wherever Copilot's agent runs. GitHub says Copilot CLI is available with all Copilot plans and the cloud agent with all paid plans.