REPO PACKAGE
microsoft vscode-copilot-chat
OFFICIAL8skills
4ready to use
LABSCO SUMMARY
This repo's 8 skills split cleanly in two. Three are contributor tooling for people working on this specific extension: anthropic-sdk-upgrader walks through upgrading the @anthropic-ai/sdk and @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk packages this project depends on, launch drives VS Code Insiders through the Chrome DevTools Protocol to test the extension's own chat panel, and troubleshoot reads this extension's JSONL debug logs to explain why a tool, subagent, or instruction file did or didn't fire.
The other five are aimed at any Copilot Chat user, not a contributor to this repo: agent-customization helps write and debug the instruction, prompt, agent, and SKILL.md files Copilot reads; install-vscode-extension walks through adding an extension by ID; get-search-view-results pulls the current results out of the Search view; and project-setup-info-context7 and project-setup-info-local both scaffold a brand-new project end to end, in wording close enough to read as the same skill twice — the only real difference is that one delegates to a Context7 MCP tool and the other to a local equivalent, and only the local one carries a setup requirement.
READ THE FULL ANALYSIS
Two of these names are not unique to this repository. agent-customization and the project-setup-info pair also appear, under the same names, among microsoft/vscode's own skill set, which fits the readme's statement that this project's work continues there. We did not diff the file contents, so we can't say which copy is current if the two have drifted apart.
What it costs to use one. Three carry no setup at all: get-search-view-results, install-vscode-extension, and project-setup-info-context7. Three need a local tool already in place: anthropic-sdk-upgrader, launch, and project-setup-info-local. The remaining two, agent-customization and troubleshoot, are unverified in our data.
ALSO IN THIS PACKAGE
PROMPT TEMPLATES
9 itemsPROMPT TEMPLATE
updateCopilotCLIToolMapping
Update the mapping of Copilot CLI tools from the source code for the CLI runtime
PROMPT TEMPLATE
updateGithubCopilotSDK
Use this to update the Github Copilot CLI/SDK
PROMPT TEMPLATE
create-agent
Create a custom agent (.agent.md) for a specific job.
PROMPT TEMPLATE
create-hook
Create a hook (.json) to enforce policy or automate agent lifecycle events.
PROMPT TEMPLATE
create-instructions
Create an instructions file (.instructions.md) for a project rule or convention.
PROMPT TEMPLATE
create-prompt
Create a reusable prompt file (.prompt.md) for a common task.
PROMPT TEMPLATE
create-skill
Create a reusable skill (SKILL.md) that packages a workflow.
PROMPT TEMPLATE
init
Generate or update workspace instructions file for AI coding agents
PROMPT TEMPLATE
plan
Research and plan with the Plan agent
WHAT'S INSIDE
8 showing · 8 totalReady to use
Nothing else to set up — install it and go.
8 of 8
SETUP
Showing all 8 skills
agent-customization
There are half a dozen different ways to give VS Code's Copilot Chat standing orders and they are easy to confuse; this picks the right one for what you want and writes the file where it will be found.
anthropic-sdk-upgrader
Upgrading the Claude libraries this extension is built on, done carefully: what changed between the two versions, what that breaks here, and a written record at the end.
get-search-view-results
Reuses a search a person has already run: the list of matches sitting in the editor's search panel is passed straight to the assistant.
install-vscode-extension
Installs a VS Code extension for you from its official identifier, so you never have to go and find it in the marketplace yourself.
launch
Drives VS Code the way a person would — clicking, typing, reading what came back — so a change to the Copilot Chat extension can be tried out in the real window, not only described.
project-setup-info-context7
Before building out a new project, checks an online documentation service for how the chosen libraries are meant to be used today, rather than relying on what it remembers.
project-setup-info-local
Creates the skeleton of a new project by running the maker's own setup tool, so you start from what they intend rather than from files invented on the spot.
troubleshoot
Answers the question “why did the assistant do that?” about a past Copilot Chat conversation, by digging through the logs that session left behind rather than guessing.
No skill in this package matches that.
HOW TO GET IT
WHOLE PACKAGEInstall the whole package (8 skills)
npx skills add microsoft/vscode-copilot-chatSINGLE SKILLOr install a single skill
npx skills add microsoft/vscode-copilot-chat --skill <name> --full-depthPick the skill name from the Skills tab — each entry there installs independently.