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Add .agents/skills skill storage paths in documentation#43439

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lewislbr wants to merge 6 commits intogithub:mainfrom
lewislbr:patch-1
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Add .agents/skills skill storage paths in documentation#43439
lewislbr wants to merge 6 commits intogithub:mainfrom
lewislbr:patch-1

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@lewislbr lewislbr commented Mar 19, 2026

Why:

As stated in stated in https://agentskills.io/client-implementation/adding-skills-support#where-to-scan, the .agents/skills paths are a convention for cross-client skill sharing.

These paths are already supported by VSCode Chat: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/agent-skills#_create-a-skill, and there seems to be a bug in the Copilot CLI github/copilot-cli#2161 that makes them partially supported.

What's being changed (if available, include any code snippets, screenshots, or gifs):

Added the .agents/skills project and personal paths.

Check off the following:

  • A subject matter expert (SME) has reviewed the technical accuracy of the content in this PR. In most cases, the author can be the SME. Open source contributions may require an SME review from GitHub staff.
  • The changes in this PR meet the docs fundamentals that are required for all content.
  • All CI checks are passing and the changes look good in the review environment.

Added the `.agents/skills` project and personal paths as they are a convention stated in https://agentskills.io/client-implementation/adding-skills-support#where-to-scan for cross-client skill sharing.
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Source Review Production What Changed
copilot/concepts/agents/about-agent-skills.md fpt
ghec
fpt
ghec
copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-command-reference.md fpt
ghec
fpt
ghec
copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-plugin-reference.md fpt
ghec
fpt
ghec
copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/customize-copilot/create-skills.md fpt
ghec
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ghec
from reusable
copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/coding-agent/create-skills.md fpt
ghec
fpt
ghec
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@github-actions github-actions bot added the triage Do not begin working on this issue until triaged by the team label Mar 19, 2026
@lewislbr lewislbr marked this pull request as ready for review March 19, 2026 11:50
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 19, 2026 11:50
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Pull request overview

Updates Copilot agent-skills documentation to include the cross-client .agents/skills convention for storing skills, aiming to improve interoperability across tools that implement the Agent Skills standard.

Changes:

  • Add .agents/skills as an additional project skill directory in the “creating skills” reusable and the conceptual overview.
  • Add ~/.agents/skills as an additional personal skill directory in Copilot CLI reference docs and the conceptual overview.
  • Update the Copilot CLI plugin loading-order diagram to include ~/.agents/skills in the precedence list.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File Description
data/reusables/copilot/creating-adding-skills.md Adds .agents/skills and ~/.agents/skills to the reusable instructions for where to store skills.
content/copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-plugin-reference.md Updates the skills loading-order diagram to include ~/.agents/skills.
content/copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-command-reference.md Adds ~/.agents/skills/ to the “Skill locations” table.
content/copilot/concepts/agents/about-agent-skills.md Expands the overview list of supported skill locations to include .agents/skills and ~/.agents/skills.

You can also share your feedback on Copilot code review. Take the survey.

│ 6. ~/.claude/skills/ (personal-claude) │
│ 7. PLUGIN: skills/ dirs (plugin) │
│ 8. COPILOT_SKILLS_DIRS env + config (custom) │
│ 6. ~/.agents/skills/ (personal-skills) │
| `.claude/skills/` | Project | Claude-compatible location. |
| Parent `.github/skills/` | Inherited | Monorepo parent directory support. |
| `~/.copilot/skills/` | Personal | Personal skills for all projects. |
| `~/.agents/skills/` | Personal | Alternative personal location. |
* Project skills, stored in your repository (`.github/skills` or `.claude/skills`)
* Personal skills, stored in your home directory and shared across projects (`~/.copilot/skills` or `~/.claude/skills`) ({% data variables.copilot.copilot_coding_agent %} and {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %} only)
* Project skills, stored in your repository (`.github/skills`, `.agents/skills` or `.claude/skills`)
* Personal skills, stored in your home directory and shared across projects (`~/.copilot/skills`, `~/.agents/skills` or `~/.claude/skills`) ({% data variables.copilot.copilot_coding_agent %} and {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %} only)
Comment on lines +9 to +11
For **project skills**, specific to a single repository, store your skill under `.github/skills`, `.agents/skills` or `.claude/skills`.

For **personal skills**, shared across projects, store your skill under `~/.copilot/skills` or `~/.claude/skills`.
For **personal skills**, shared across projects, store your skill under `~/.copilot/skills`, `~/.agents/skills` or `~/.claude/skills`.
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