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title Creating a plugin for {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %}
shortTitle Plugins: Create a plugin
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename true
intro Create a plugin to share customizations in an easy-to-install package.
versions
feature
copilot
category
Configure Copilot
Author and optimize with Copilot
Configure Copilot CLI
contentType how-tos
docsTeamMetrics
copilot-cli

Introduction

Plugins are packages that extend the functionality of {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %}. See AUTOTITLE.

{% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.cli-help-note %}

Plugin structure

A plugin consists of a directory with a specific structure. At minimum, it must contain a plugin.json manifest file at the root of the directory. It can also contain any combination of agents, skills, hooks, and MCP server configurations.

Example plugin structure

my-plugin/
├── plugin.json           # Required manifest
├── agents/               # Custom agents (optional)
│   └── helper.agent.md
├── skills/               # Skills (optional)
│   └── deploy/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── hooks.json            # Hook configuration (optional)
└── .mcp.json             # MCP server config (optional)

Creating a plugin

  1. Create a directory for your plugin.

  2. Add a plugin.json manifest file to the root of the directory.

    Example plugin.json file

    {% data reusables.copilot.copilot-cli.cli-example-plugin-file %}

    For details of the full set of fields you can include in this file, see AUTOTITLE.

  3. Add some components to your plugin by creating the appropriate files and directories for agents, skills, hooks, and MCP server configurations.

    For example:

    1. Add an agent by creating a NAME.agent.md file in an agents subdirectory.

      ---
name: my-agent
description: Helps with specific tasks
tools: ["bash", "edit", "view"]
---

You are a specialized assistant that...

    2. Add a skill by creating a skills/NAME subdirectory of your plugin directory, where NAME is the name of your skill. Then, within this subdirectory, create a SKILL.md file that defines the skill.

      For example, to create a "deploy" skill, create skills/deploy/SKILL.md:

      ---
name: deploy
description: Deploy the current project to...
---

Instructions for the skill...

  4. Install your plugin locally, so that you can test it as you develop it.

    For example, where ./my-plugin is the path to your plugin directory, enter:

    copilot plugin install ./my-plugin

  5. Verify that the plugin loaded successfully by viewing your list of installed plugins:

    copilot plugin list

    Or you can start a new interactive session and enter:

    /plugin list

  6. Verify that the agents, skills, hooks, and MCP server configurations you defined are loaded correctly.

    For example, in an interactive session, to check that custom agents defined in the plugin were loaded, enter:

    /agent

    To check that skills defined in the plugin were loaded, enter:

    /skills list

  7. Use the functionality provided by your plugin's components to verify that each component works as expected.

  8. Iterate on your plugin development, as required.

    [!IMPORTANT] When you install a plugin its components are cached and the CLI reads from the cache for subsequent sessions. To pick up changes made to a local plugin install it again:

    copilot plugin install ./my-plugin

  9. After you have finished testing, you can uninstall the local version of your plugin by entering:

    copilot plugin uninstall NAME

    [!NOTE] To uninstall a plugin, use the name of the plugin as specified in the name field of the plugin's plugin.json manifest file, not the path to the plugin's directory.

Distributing your plugin

To distribute your plugin, you can add it to a marketplace. See AUTOTITLE.

Further reading