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title About {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot %} plugins
shortTitle Plugins
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename true
intro Plugins are installable packages that extend {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %} with reusable agents, skills, hooks, and integrations.
product {% data reusables.gated-features.copilot-cli %}<br><br>{% data reusables.gated-features.copilot-cloud-agent %}<br><a href="https://github.com/features/copilot/plans?ref_product=copilot&ref_type=purchase&ref_style=button" target="_blank" class="btn btn-primary mt-3 mr-3 no-underline"><span>Sign up for {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %}</span> {% octicon "link-external" height:16 %}</a>
versions
feature
copilot
contentType concepts
category
Learn about Copilot
Learn about Copilot CLI
docsTeamMetrics
copilot-cli
redirect_from
/copilot/concepts/agents/copilot-cli/about-cli-plugins

Plugins provide a way to distribute custom {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %} functionality. You can use a plugin to add a preconfigured set of capabilities to {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %}, including {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %} and {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cloud_agent %}.

What is a plugin?

  • A distributable package that extends {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_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/)

How plugins are structured

A plugin is a directory with a specific structure. At minimum, it contains a plugin.json manifest file at the root of the directory. The manifest gives the plugin a name and points to the components the plugin provides. Alongside the manifest, the directory can contain any combination of agents, skills, hooks, MCP server configurations, and LSP server configurations.

A typical plugin directory looks like this:

my-plugin/
├── plugin.json           # Required manifest
├── agents/               # Custom agents (optional)
│   └── helper.agent.md
├── skills/               # Skills (optional)
│   └── deploy/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── hooks.json            # Hook configuration (optional)
├── .mcp.json             # MCP server config (optional)
└── lsp.json              # LSP server config (optional)

For the full set of fields you can include in the manifest, see AUTOTITLE. For step-by-step guidance on authoring a plugin, see AUTOTITLE.

Why use plugins?

Plugins provide the following benefits:

  • Reusability across projects
  • Team standardization of {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %} 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:

How you install a plugin depends on which client you're using:

  • In {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli_short %}, you can install plugins imperatively using the copilot plugin install command or the /plugin install slash command, or declaratively by adding the plugin to the enabledPlugins field of either a user-level ~/.copilot/settings.json file or a repository-level .github/copilot/settings.json file. See AUTOTITLE.
  • In {% data variables.copilot.copilot_cloud_agent %}, you install plugins declaratively by adding them to the enabledPlugins field of the repository's .github/copilot/settings.json file. To install plugins from a marketplace that isn't registered by default, you can also add the marketplace to the extraKnownMarketplaces field in the same file.

Enterprise administrators can define plugin standards that apply to users on the enterprise's {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_short %} plan, including specifying additional marketplaces and plugins that are automatically installed. See AUTOTITLE.

How plugin marketplaces work

A plugin marketplace is a registry of plugins that you can browse and install from. A marketplace can be hosted in a repository on {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom_the_website %}, in any other online Git hosting service, or on your local or shared file system.

A marketplace is defined by a marketplace.json file, which provides metadata about the marketplace and lists the plugins it makes available. Each entry in the marketplace's plugins array describes a plugin—including its name, description, version, and the path to the plugin's directory.

Because plugins in a marketplace are versioned, marketplaces make it easy to discover, install, and update plugins, and to share them across a team. For step-by-step guidance on creating a marketplace, see AUTOTITLE.

Plugins compared with manual configuration

Any functionality that you could add with a plugin, you could also add by configuring {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot_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 Install command or enabledPlugins entry
Versioning Git history Marketplace versions
Discovery Searching repositories Marketplace browsing

Further reading