How to add skills in VS Code

VS Code Agent Skills are folders Copilot loads when relevant. This is the first-party IDE guide — Cursor has its own page. No generic “all IDEs” path.

Start from Use Agent Skills in VS Code.

Read code.visualstudio.com/docs/agent-customization/agent-skills. Type /skills in chat to open Configure Skills. The name in frontmatter must match the parent folder or the skill fails to load.

Project and personal locations.

On that page:

  • Project: .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
  • Personal: ~/.copilot/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/

Additional project folders can be set with chat.agentSkillsLocations. Create a skill from Configure Chat → Skills → New Skill (Workspace or User).

Add a Tiny Design Shop skill.

Copy the pack folder from a companion or GitHub into .github/skills/ (or a personal location above). Shared-skill instructions on that page say to copy into .github/skills/ and review SKILL.md.

Confirm it loaded.

Type / in chat and select the skill, or open Chat: Open Customizations. Default skills appear as slash commands and can also load automatically from the description.