copilot-cli

name	copilot-cli
description	Delegate to GitHub Copilot CLI via its `--output-format json` stream. Python runner parses JSONL events into a structured transcript with full event replay. Default model claude-opus-4.7 + xhigh reasoning. Pass --model / --effort to override; --multi to fan out across models.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Write, Glob

You are the /copilot-cli skill. You delegate work to GitHub Copilot CLI from inside the current agent host by spawning the copilot binary with --output-format json, then parsing the JSONL event stream through a Python runner.

Two sibling skills exist for comparison:

• /copilot-acp — drives copilot --acp (Agent Client Protocol, JSON-RPC stdio). Different pause/permission semantics.
• /copilot-sdk — uses the official github/copilot-sdk library (Go-based runner here).

If you're not sure which to use, use /copilot-cli — it's the workhorse.

Invocation patterns

User input	What to do
/copilot-cli <task>	Sync run. Block until done. Minimal stdout.
/copilot-cli --model claude-haiku-4.5 <task>	Override model for this run.
/copilot-cli --effort high <task>	Override reasoning effort.
/copilot-cli --multi opus,haiku,gpt-5.2 <task>	Fan out: run the task against each model in parallel.
/copilot-cli --bg <task>	Background run. Return run-id.
/copilot-cli-check	List runs.
/copilot-cli-check <run-id>	Print transcript tail. For the full event stream, read .copilot-runs/<run-id>.jsonl.
/copilot-cli-check <run-id> --answer "..."	Resume a paused run.
/copilot-cli-cancel <run-id>	Kill the process group.

On every invocation

1. Bootstrap. Run bash .agents/skills/copilot-cli/run.sh --bootstrap. Installs copilot if missing (official tarball at https://gh.io/copilot-install, lands in ~/.local/bin for non-root), reports version, and confirms auth. Auth is via GH_TOKEN (pre-set in this environment).
2. Dispatch.
   • Sync: bash .agents/skills/copilot-cli/run.sh [--model X] [--effort L] "<task>".
   • Multi: bash .agents/skills/copilot-cli/multi.sh <comma-models> "<task>".
   • Background: bash .agents/skills/copilot-cli/bg.sh [--model X] [--effort L] "<task>".
   • Check / answer / cancel: the matching check.sh / cancel.sh in this folder.

Defaults

• Model: claude-opus-4.7 (override: --model, COPILOT_MODEL).
• Reasoning effort: xhigh. Auto-skipped when the model doesn't support it (Haiku).
• Tool approval: --allow-all-tools (required for non-interactive). Pause-for-input via the wrapper-prompt .ask protocol.

Run-files protocol (.copilot-runs/<run-id>.*)

Shared across all three sibling skills so check.sh / cancel.sh work uniformly. Run-ids are prefixed by backend: …-cli-…, …-acp-…, …-sdk-….

Suffix	Meaning
.jsonl	Raw event stream. Full fidelity: thinking deltas, every tool call, every assistant delta. Source of truth for replay.
.md	Human-readable rendered transcript.
.status	running / needs-input / done / failed / cancelled.
.pid	Runner PID (background only).
.task	Original prompt.
.ask / .answer	Pause-for-input protocol.
.session	Copilot session id (enables native --resume).
.stdout	Background runner's minimal stdout summary.

What this skill gives the orchestrator

• Minimal stdout. You see only the final assistant message + a one-line summary [exit 0 · premium 7.5 · 4.8s]. Token cost to the orchestrator is bounded.
• Full replay on demand. Read <run-id>.jsonl for thinking deltas, tool args, raw events. Read <run-id>.md for a readable rendered view.
• Native resume. Pause/answer/resume uses copilot --resume <sessionId>; Copilot keeps its full prior context.
• Cross-model comparison. --multi runs the same task against several models in parallel and surfaces the deltas.

What this skill does NOT do

• Doesn't keep the host agent warm. Bound background runs to minutes-to-hours; the host environment may reclaim on inactivity.
• Doesn't proxy GitHub credentials. Copilot inherits GH_TOKEN directly from the env.
• Doesn't intercept individual tool executions (binary auto-approves under --allow-all-tools). For per-tool approval, see /copilot-acp.