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GitHub Copilot Agents Hub

Your single source of truth for building, managing, and deploying custom GitHub Copilot agents, instructions, skills, and prompts across your team.

Quick Start

Get up and running in 5 minutes:

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-ORG/copilot-agents-hub.git
cd copilot-agents-hub

# 2. Run setup (creates symlinks to VS Code config)
bash scripts/setup-vscode.sh

# 3. Restart VS Code
# Cmd+Shift+P → Reload Window

# 4. Open Copilot Chat
# Cmd+Shift+I → Type @ → See agents

Done! You now have access to all custom agents across your machines.

What This Guide Covers

This documentation is organized into increasing levels of depth:

Level What You Will Learn
Fundamentals What agents, instructions, skills, and prompts are and why they exist
Clarification How Copilot agents differ from broader agentic AI systems
Slash Commands vs Agents Understand / (one-off tasks) vs @ (persistent agent context)
Intermediate How the primitives compose, configuration patterns, and real-world use cases
Advanced Hooks, multi-agent workflows, scoping, tool restrictions, and anti-patterns
IDE Compatibility Which editors support each primitive and how to configure them
Reference Guides Creating your own agents, skills, prompts, and instructions

Who Should Read This

Quick Mental Model

flowchart TD
    User["Developer in IDE"] --> Chat["Copilot Chat"]
    Chat --> Agent["Custom Agent (.agent.md)"]
    Chat --> Prompt["Prompt (.prompt.md)"]
    Agent --> Instructions["Instructions (.instructions.md)"]
    Agent --> Skills["Skills (SKILL.md)"]
    Agent --> Tools["MCP · Built-in Tools · Hooks"]
    Prompt --> Instructions

Repository Structure

copilot-agents-hub/
├── .github/                      ← Code only (no docs)
│   ├── agents/                   ← Custom agent definitions (.agent.md)
│   ├── prompts/                  ← Reusable prompt templates (.prompt.md)
│   ├── instructions/             ← File-pattern instructions (.instructions.md)
│   ├── skills/                   ← Skill bundles (SKILL.md + assets)
│   ├── workflows/                ← GitHub Actions workflows
│   └── copilot-instructions.md   ← Workspace-level rules
├── docs/                         ← MkDocs documentation
│   ├── fundamentals/             ← Core concepts
│   ├── intermediate/             ← Working together patterns
│   ├── advanced/                 ← Advanced patterns
│   ├── ide-compatibility/        ← IDE setup guides
│   ├── reference/                ← Creating agents, skills, prompts, instructions
│   ├── setup.md                  ← Detailed setup guide
│   ├── agents-index.md           ← Agent registry
│   └── index.md                  ← This file
├── .vscode/                      ← VS Code workspace settings
├── scripts/                      ← Automation scripts
└── mkdocs.yml                    ← Documentation configuration

Running the Docs Locally

# One-liner (installs mkdocs-material if missing, then serves)
bash scripts/serve-docs.sh

Or manually:

pip install -r requirements.txt
mkdocs serve
# → http://127.0.0.1:8000

To build a static site for deployment:

mkdocs build
# Output goes to site/

Key Components

🤖 Agents (.agent.md)

Specialized AI personas for specific tasks. Use in Copilot Chat with @agent-name.

Current agents: - ✅ mkdocs-content — MkDocs documentation specialist

📋 Instructions (.instructions.md)

Auto-applied file-level style guides. Appear automatically when editing matching file types.

🛠️ Skills (Bundled reference libraries)

Templates, configs, and examples. Access with /skill-name in Copilot Chat.

Current skills: - ✅ mkdocs-docs — Complete MkDocs setup library

📝 Prompts (.prompt.md)

Parameterized single-task workflows. Access with /prompt-name in Copilot Chat.

Next Steps

  1. Complete setup — Run bash scripts/setup-vscode.sh
  2. Test it out — Open Copilot Chat, type @, select an agent
  3. Read about your domain — Pick a section from "What This Guide Covers" above
  4. Create your first agent — See Reference Guides
  5. Sync to other machines — Push to GitHub, clone elsewhere, run setup script

Learning Path

Step What Time
1 Quick Start (above) 5 mins
2 Fundamentals 10 mins
3 Setup Guide 5 mins
4 Agents Index 2 mins
5 Create Your First Agent 15 mins
6 Sync Across Machines 5 mins

Validate Before Pushing to GitHub

bash scripts/validate-agents.sh

Checks: - ✓ All agents have valid YAML - ✓ Agent names match filenames - ✓ No duplicate names - ✓ Configuration is complete