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title About plugins for {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %}
shortTitle About CLI plugins
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename true
intro Plugins are installable packages that extend {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %} with reusable agents, skills, hooks, and integrations.
product {% data reusables.gated-features.copilot-cli %}
versions
feature
copilot
contentType concepts
category
Learn about Copilot
Learn about Copilot CLI

Plugins provide a way to distribute custom CLI functionality. You can use a plugin to add a preconfigured set of capabilities to {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %}.

What is a plugin?

  • A distributable package that extends {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %}'s functionality.
  • A bundle of components in a single installable unit.

What plugins contain

A plugin can contain some or all of the following components:

  • Custom agents — Specialized AI assistants (*.agent.md files in agents/)
  • Skills — Discrete callable capabilities (skills subdirectories in skills/, containing a SKILL.md file)
  • Hooks — Event handlers that intercept agent behavior (a hooks.json file in the plugin root, or in hooks/)
  • MCP server configurations — Model Context Protocol integrations (a .mcp.json file in the plugin root, or an mcp.json file in .github/)
  • LSP server configurations — Language Server Protocol integrations (an lsp.json file in the plugin root, or in .github/)

Why use plugins?

Plugins provide the following benefits:

  • Reusability across projects
  • Team standardization of CLI configuration
  • Share domain expertise (for example, by providing the skills of a Rails expert, or a Kubernetes expert)
  • Encapsulate complex MCP server setups

Where can I get plugins?

You can install plugins from:

  • A marketplace
  • A repository
  • A local path

A marketplace is a location where developers can publish, discover, install, and manage plugins. It's a bit like an app store—but for plugins.

Examples of marketplaces include:

For more about adding marketplaces and installing plugins from them, see AUTOTITLE.

Plugins compared with manual configuration

Any functionality that you could add with a plugin, you could also add by configuring {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} manually—for example, by adding custom agent profiles or MCP servers. However, plugins provide several advantages over manual configuration:

Feature Manual configuration in a repository Plugin
Scope Single repository Any project
Sharing Manual copy/paste /plugin install command
Versioning Git history Marketplace versions
Discovery Searching repositories Marketplace browsing

Further reading