github / github/copilot-cli

Personal skills in ~/.copilot/skills/ are never discovered, despite being documented as a source

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area:agents area:configuration
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Description

Describe the bug

Summary

copilot skill --help documents ~/.copilot/skills/ as a "Personal" skill
source, but skills placed there are never discovered. copilot skill list
returns only builtin skills. Project and custom sources work correctly in the
same version, so this appears specific to the personal source.

Affected version

| Copilot CLI | 1.0.81-5 |

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Reproduction

  1. Create a minimal personal skill:
mkdir ~/.copilot/skills/zz-repro-demo

~/.copilot/skills/zz-repro-demo/SKILL.md:

---
name: zz-repro-demo
description: "Minimal skill used to reproduce personal skill discovery."
---

# Repro demo

Say hello.
  1. From a directory containing no project skills, run:
copilot skill list --json

Result:

[
  { "name": "customize-cloud-agent", "source": "builtin" },
  { "name": "github-pr-media",       "source": "builtin" }
]

The personal skill is absent. Plain copilot skill list prints only a
Builtin skills: section, with no Personal skills: heading.

Expected behavior

Expected behavior

Per copilot skill --help:

Skills are discovered from several sources:
  Project   .github/skills/, .agents/skills/, or .claude/skills/
  Personal  ~/.copilot/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/
  Plugin    Installed plugins that bundle skills
  Custom    Directories added with `copilot skill add <directory>`

A valid skill in ~/.copilot/skills/<name>/SKILL.md should appear in
copilot skill list with source personal.

Actual behavior

It does not appear at all.

Additional context

What this is not

  • Not invalid frontmatter. The repro skill above is newly created and
    minimal. Four other valid personal skills on this machine are equally absent.
  • Not a symlink/junction resolution issue. The repro directory is a real
    directory. A separate real-directory skill is also invisible, alongside
    junctioned ones. All are equally absent.
  • Not general discovery breakage. From a repo containing
    .github/skills/, those skills list correctly with source project.
  • Not a missing scope flag. copilot skill list --help offers only
    --json; there is no flag to include other sources.
  • Not user configuration. Nothing in ~/.copilot/settings.json or
    config.json references skills or disables a source.

The custom source works, which narrows it

Registering the same directory explicitly does work:

copilot skill add /path/to/zz-repro-demo
copilot skill list --json
[
  { "name": "zz-repro-demo",         "source": "custom"  },
  { "name": "customize-cloud-agent", "source": "builtin" },
  { "name": "github-pr-media",       "source": "builtin" }
]

Identical skill content, discovered under custom but not under personal.
This suggests the loader itself is fine and the personal source is either not
enumerated or is filtered out.

Impact

The documented way to install a skill for use across all projects does not
work. The only working alternatives are to place skills inside each project's
.github/skills/, or register each directory individually with
copilot skill add. For anyone maintaining reusable skills across several
repositories, this forces per-project copies, which then drift.

Environment

Copilot CLI 1.0.81-5
Install method WinGet (GitHub.Copilot)
OS Windows 11 Enterprise, 10.0.26200.0
Architecture ARM64
Shell PowerShell 7.6.5 (Core)

Possibly related, lower priority

copilot skill remove <name> fails for a skill registered via
copilot skill add <directory>, even though copilot skill list displays it
by name and the help text says remove <name-or-directory>:

Error: No custom, personal, or project skill found matching "zz-repro-demo".

Happy to split this into its own issue if preferred.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the issue with ~/.copilot/skills/zz-repro-demo/SKILL.md, then compare copilot skill list --json with the same directory registered through copilot skill add. Read the behavior described by copilot skill --help; done means a valid personal skill appears in the list with source personal without requiring custom registration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
powershell, shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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