github / github/copilot-cli

Skills token limit impact on context window

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#1,130 1 comment 5 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:context-memory
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Description

## Issue Description

When attempting to use a skill, it may not be visible in the system prompt due to token limits, even though the skill loads successfully.

## Steps to Reproduce

1. Have multiple skills installed (e.g., 49 skills)
2. Invoke a skill using the skill tool
3. Skill loads successfully with message: `Skill "skill-name" loaded successfully. Follow the instructions in the skill context.`
4. However, the skill is not visible in the `` section of the system prompt

## Current Behavior

- Only a subset of skills are shown in the system prompt (31 of 49 in this case)
- Skills that are hidden due to token limits can still be invoked
- This creates confusion as the AI cannot see the skill instructions until after invocation

## Expected Behavior

All available skills should be accessible to the AI, or there should be a better mechanism for handling skill discovery and loading when many skills are installed.

Not sure why there are such limitations to the number of skills. But I would expect that since the context for them is significantly less than MCP, they should be able to be properly visible to the cli tool.

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