chat-directline

Sends a message to your live chatbot and shows you what it replies, for bots that either need no sign-in at all or ask the person to sign in by hand.

WHEN TO USE

SCOPE

USE FOR

Send a test message to a live bot that anyone can talk to without signing in.
Work through a bot's sign-in page and paste back the code it gives you.
Carry on the same conversation over several turns instead of starting fresh.

NOT FOR

Not for agents using integrated Entra ID single sign-on — use chat-sdk for those.

This is a saved copy of the skill's SKILL.md instructions. It may differ from the upstream file or the version you install.

In this document (4)

Chat via DirectLine

Send a single utterance to a published agent via the DirectLine v3 REST API. Use this for agents with no authentication (authenticationmode 1) or manual authentication (authenticationmode 3).

Instructions

Run the script with --token-endpoint (from detect-mode output) and the utterance from $ARGUMENTS:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/chat-with-agent.bundle.js \
  --token-endpoint "<tokenEndpoint>" "<utterance>"

If the user provided a DirectLine secret instead:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/chat-with-agent.bundle.js \
  --directline-secret "<secret>" "<utterance>"

Parse the JSON output from stdout.

Normal response (`status: "ok"`)

{
  "status": "ok",
  "protocol": "directline",
  "utterance": "hello",
  "conversation_id": "abc123-XYZ",
  "directline_token": "eyJ...",
  "watermark": "3",
  "start_activities": [ ... ],
  "activities": [ ... ]
}

Display the agent's response from the activities array:

Text: activities where type === "message" — show text
Suggested actions: suggestedActions.actions array
Adaptive cards: attachments with contentType === "application/vnd.microsoft.card.adaptive"

Save conversation_id, directline_token, and watermark — needed for follow-ups.

Sign-in required (`status: "signin_required"`)

The agent requires the user to authenticate (manual auth agents):

{
  "status": "signin_required",
  "protocol": "directline",
  "signin_url": "https://...",
  "resume_command": "...",
  "followup_command": "..."
}

Show the signin_url to the user, ask for the validation code
Send the code: node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/chat-with-agent.bundle.js <resume_command with code substituted>
Re-send the utterance: node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/chat-with-agent.bundle.js <followup_command>

Use resume_command and followup_command exactly as given.

Multi-turn

Pass all three values from the previous response:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/chat-with-agent.bundle.js \
  --token-endpoint "<url>" "<follow-up>" \
  --conversation-id "<id>" --directline-token "<token>" --watermark "<watermark>"

directline_token is bound to the conversation — do NOT fetch a new token. Always reuse from the previous response.
watermark tracks seen activities — pass it to avoid duplicates.
Tokens expire after ~30 minutes. If expired, start a new conversation (omit --conversation-id).

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Resolution
`Token endpoint rejected`	Agent not published or wrong URL	Verify agent is published
`Conversation not found`	Token expired (>30 min)	Start a new conversation

This skill ships inside the Copilot Studio YAML Toolkit plugin. Listed package contents include 4 agents and hooks. Installed components and skill versions may vary by AI tool.

Install the whole plugin

This route installs the Copilot Studio YAML Toolkit plugin package selected for your AI tool.

Add Microsoft's marketplace, then install the plugin

Type both lines inside a Claude Code session, not at your shell prompt. They add Microsoft's marketplace, which is this repository, and the copilot-studio plugin, with its Copilot Studio skills and four sub-agents.

Install checklist

Microsoft lists Node.js 18 or later, and VS Code with the Copilot Studio extension for cloning, pushing and pulling agents.

/plugin marketplace add microsoft/skills-for-copilot-studio

/plugin install copilot-studio@skills-for-copilot-studio

Installation and loading

Claude Code installs it once you pick an install option.

Good to know

A hook that runs whenever a session starts adds Microsoft's Copilot Studio instructions; one tells Claude to lean towards reading your requests as Copilot Studio requests unless there are clear signs otherwise.
The option that installs it for you in every project brings the hook's instructions into every project; to keep them to one Copilot Studio repository, pick the option for this repo only.
On first run, and after an update that changes its dependencies, the session-start hook runs npm install in the plugin's data folder; every session it also writes ~/.copilot-studio-cli/plugin-paths.json.

Add Microsoft's marketplace, then install the plugin

Type both lines in an interactive GitHub Copilot CLI session, not at your shell prompt. The first adds Microsoft's marketplace, which is this repository; the second installs the copilot-studio plugin.

Install checklist

Microsoft lists Node.js 18 or later, and VS Code with the Copilot Studio extension for cloning, pushing and pulling agents.

/plugin marketplace add microsoft/skills-for-copilot-studio

/plugin install copilot-studio@skills-for-copilot-studio

Good to know

The plugin also carries a hooks/hooks.json file with SessionStart hooks, a path GitHub's plugin reference lists as a hooks file for plugins in this format; read the file in the repository before you install.

Open plugin page ↗

Install without the plugin (incomplete)

What's missing

Installing just this skill adds only its own folder. Its instructions also call for other plugin components, such as shared scripts, reference files or other skills, which aren't included. Installing the whole plugin avoids this gap.

Run this outside your AI tool, using Node.js 22.20.0 or newer. Skills CLI 1.7.2 skips skill selection; prompts cancel installation without an interactive terminal. If choosing Project when asked about installation scope, open your project's folder before running this.

Install checklist

Check selected tools if a picker appears; Claude Code may be unchecked under Additional agents. ↑/↓ moves, Space toggles selections, Enter confirms.
Without a tool picker, check Installing to: for your intended tool. Stop if it names a different tool.
If asked, choose Symlink (Recommended) for shared files or Copy to all agents for separate copies; review the summary before confirming installation.
Install the find-skills skill? defaults to Yes, adding another skill for all projects. Choose No if you don't want that extra installation.

Skills CLI 1.7.2 sends install data to skills.sh by default, including the source, skill names, target tools and file details; GitHub sources are reported only when GitHub confirms the repository is public, while other remote sources can also be reported. Confirmed-public GitHub sources also trigger a security-audit request. Before installing, set the environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 to disable both.

npx skills add microsoft/skills-for-copilot-studio --skill "chat-directline" --full-depth

After installing for Claude Code, open it in the installation project if you chose Project; Global makes the skill available across projects on this computer. Once Claude Code loads the skill, its description helps Claude decide when to use it.

If installation created a top-level skills folder that did not exist when your Claude Code session started, run /reload-skills in that session. Run it again after later changes in that folder.

View on GitHub

Chat via DirectLine

Instructions

Normal response (status: "ok")

Sign-in required (status: "signin_required")

Multi-turn

Error Handling

Local tool required

Install the whole plugin

Add Microsoft's marketplace, then install the plugin

Add Microsoft's marketplace, then install the plugin

More skills

add-action

add-adaptive-card

add-generative-answers

add-global-variable

add-knowledge

add-node

Normal response (`status: "ok"`)

Sign-in required (`status: "signin_required"`)