github / github/copilot-cli

skillDirectories Does Not Take Effect at Repo Level

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#3,822 0 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:configuration area:plugins
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

### Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

Working with skills spread across multiple repos or in subdirectories of mono-repos are currently not possible to include without a lot of copying around and cleaning up.

### Proposed solution

Support `skillDirectories` setting both in `.github/copilot/settings.json` and `.github/copilot/settings.local.json` so that we can customise which skills are exposed based on the type of work, the sub-path in a mono-repo and when working across multiple repos. All three scenarios are fairly common in a medium to large enterprise.

### Example prompts or workflows

Let's say I'm working on a frontend-repo and I notice that the backend is not adhering to the contract. I'd like from my frontend-repo to invoke the following skill that lives in backend-repo:
`/investigate-backlog to see if there's a bug on data path of controller Foo where it returns a string instead of a guid`

It wouldn't make sense for me to have it in my user settings since it's dependent upon the type of work I'm doing and the repo I'm currently using. If I duplicate the skill in frontend-repo's .github folder, then I can't be sure when backend folks update something on their end and I get outdated results.

### Additional context

A bit similar to the following issues but not the same IMO:
- #3688
- #3505

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing how skillDirectories is currently read from user settings and how repository settings are loaded. Compare the behavior of .github/copilot/settings.json and .github/copilot/settings.local.json, including skills in other repositories and monorepo subdirectories. Done means both repository-level files can customize the exposed skill directories without copying skills.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli, developer-experience
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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