How to Add Agent Skills in Copilot CLI

[ans-4175]

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In Copilot CLI, how to add Agent Skills?

I already make skill in

But no skills detected here

I also already had skills in ~/.claude/skills, but none of it detected by CLI.
How to add skills in Copilot CLI then?

[vinay1359]

Hi @ans-4175

Copilot CLI does support Agent Skills, but it only loads them from inside your repository (like .github/skills//SKILL.md). If you put skills in a global ~/.claude/skills folder or some random place, Copilot CLI won’t see them.

So try this:

Create a .github/skills folder in the project.
Put each skill in its own subfolder with a SKILL.md file.
Then Copilot CLI can detect and use those skills automatically when relevant.

refer this docs
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/about-agent-skills

[Giorno-Giovanna-Dio]

Copilot CLI doesn’t auto-detect skills just based on the folder name or the presence of a SKILL.md file.

From what I’ve seen, a few things are required for skills to be picked up:
1. Directory structure matters
The CLI only scans these paths exactly:

•	~/.copilot/skills/<skill-name>/
•	[repo-root]/.github/skills/<skill-name>/

The skill folder itself needs to be directly under one of those paths (no extra nesting).
2. A metadata file is required
In addition to SKILL.md, the skill directory must include a skill definition file (for example skill.json / skill.yaml, depending on the current spec).
A markdown file alone won’t register as a skill.
3. Restart / reload the CLI
The CLI only loads skills at startup. After adding or changing skills, you need to restart the Copilot CLI session.
4. Version / feature flag check
Agent skills support is still evolving. Make sure you’re on the latest Copilot CLI version and that any experimental/agent-related flags are enabled if required.

Also worth noting: ~/.claude/skills are Claude-specific and won’t be picked up by Copilot CLI unless they’re mirrored into one of the Copilot skill paths.

It might help if the docs explicitly state that SKILL.md alone isn’t sufficient for discovery.

[ans-4175]

Hi, I've figure it out

It can use claude skills config too.
As long as names using dash i.e stock-screening with markdown frontmatter metadata and content.

Exactly like @Giorno-Giovanna-Dio mentioned ~/.copilot/skills/<skill-name>/ in single level SKILL.md
Thanks again guys to answering my confusion

[johankool]

After some trial-and-error I learned that the name of the folder and in the markdown frontmatter should match exactly and must be all lower case with an optional dash in the name.