Plugins provide a way to distribute custom Copilot functionality. You can use a plugin to add a preconfigured set of capabilities to Copilot, including 코파일럿 CLI and Copilot 클라우드 에이전트.
What is a plugin?
- A distributable package that extends Copilot'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.mdfiles inagents/) - Skills — Discrete callable capabilities (skills subdirectories in
skills/, containing aSKILL.mdfile) - Hooks — Event handlers that intercept agent behavior (a
hooks.jsonfile in the plugin root, or inhooks/) - MCP server configurations — Model Context Protocol integrations (a
.mcp.jsonfile in the plugin root, or anmcp.jsonfile in.github/) - LSP server configurations — Language Server Protocol integrations (an
lsp.jsonfile 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 GitHub Copilot CLI 플러그 인 참조. For step-by-step guidance on authoring a plugin, see 에 대한 플러그 인 만들기 GitHub Copilot 명령 줄 인터페이스 (CLI).
Why use plugins?
Plugins provide the following benefits:
- Reusability across projects
- Team standardization of Copilot 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:
- copilot-plugins (added by default)
- awesome-copilot (added by default)
- claude-code-plugins
- claudeforge-marketplace
How you install a plugin depends on which client you're using:
- In 코파일럿 CLI, you can install plugins imperatively using the
copilot plugin installcommand or the/plugin installslash command, or declaratively by adding the plugin to theenabledPluginsfield of either a user-level~/.copilot/settings.jsonfile or a repository-level.github/copilot/settings.jsonfile. See 에 대한 플러그 인 찾기 및 설치 GitHub Copilot 명령 줄 인터페이스 (CLI). - In Copilot 클라우드 에이전트, you install plugins declaratively by adding them to the
enabledPluginsfield of the repository's.github/copilot/settings.jsonfile. To install plugins from a marketplace that isn't registered by default, you can also add the marketplace to theextraKnownMarketplacesfield in the same file.
Enterprise administrators can define plugin standards that apply to users on the enterprise's Copilot plan, including specifying additional marketplaces and plugins that are automatically installed. See 엔터프라이즈 관리 플러그 인 표준 정보.
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 GitHub.com, 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 에 대한 플러그 인 마켓플레이스 만들기 GitHub Copilot 명령 줄 인터페이스 (CLI).
Plugins compared with manual configuration
Any functionality that you could add with a plugin, you could also add by configuring Copilot 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 |