platform-awareness

name	platform-awareness
description	VS Code Copilot platform changes affecting how tools are used: deferred-tool categories with example search queries (GitHub, Azure MCP, Fabric, Microsoft docs, browser, notebook, mermaid, Bicep, Figma, Microsoft Graph), the VS Code 1.117-1.128 platform-change table (models, BYOK, sandboxing, browser tools GA, Ollama, Claude BYOK), and skill-picker surfacing behavior (github.copilot.chat.skillTool.enabled). Use when working with deferred tools, MCP servers, GitHub APIs, notebooks, browser automation, when asking about VS Code Copilot Chat platform features, or when a tool_search call needs a category suggestion.
lastReviewed	2026-08-03T00:00:00.000Z

Platform Awareness

Owns the deferred-tool discipline, the VS Code Copilot platform-change tracking, and the SKILL.md description discipline that platform surfaces expose. This skill's description front-loads discovery vocabulary (GitHub, Azure, Fabric, Microsoft docs, browser, notebook, mermaid, Bicep, Figma, Microsoft Graph, MCP) so it fires reliably on any request that touches those surfaces.

Deferred Tools — Search Before Calling

Many tools are deferred (lazy-loaded) as of VS Code 1.118+. They appear in availableDeferredTools but cannot be called directly. Load via tool_search first with a natural-language capability description.

Rules

1. Search before calling. Calling a deferred tool without loading via tool_search fails silently.
2. Search once per tool. After load, the tool stays available for the session.
3. Use broad queries. One broad search beats multiple narrow ones.
4. No results means unavailable. Don't retry with synonyms.

External Ingest (VS Code 1.119+)

In remote or virtual-filesystem workspaces (GitHub.dev, VS Code Remote, Codespaces), the editor provides codebase context automatically. semantic_search and file operations work transparently — no agent action needed.

Common Deferred Tool Categories

Reach for these search queries when a specific capability is needed:

Category	Example tools	Search query
GitHub operations	issues, PRs, repos, code search, branches, tags	github
Azure MCP	Storage, KeyVault, Cosmos, SQL, AKS, App Service (48+ services)	azure or the specific service name
Microsoft Fabric	Eventstream, Kusto, OneLake, items	fabric or onelake
Microsoft docs	docs search, code samples, full-page fetch	microsoft docs
Browser automation	click, navigate, screenshot, fill form, evaluate JS	browser or playwright
Notebook operations	run cell, edit notebook, read output	notebook
Mermaid rendering	preview, validate diagrams	mermaid
Bicep / ARM	best practices, schema, diagnostics, format	bicep
Figma	design context, code connect, screenshots	figma
Microsoft Graph	get, list, suggest queries	microsoft graph or entra

Do not hardcode tool names from availableDeferredTools without loading them via tool_search. The list is informational; actual availability requires the search call. If the topic is not obviously in the categories above, broaden the search query empirically — start with one word, iterate.

VS Code 1.122–1.128 conveniences

Release	Capability	What it changes for me
1.122	/models slash command	Opens the model picker from chat input. Useful when the user asks to switch models mid-task without leaving chat.
1.122	BYOK air-gapped	Bring Your Own Key models work without GitHub authentication. Heirs in regulated/enterprise contexts can run Copilot Chat fully offline; the BYOK token counter (introduced 1.120) keeps working.
1.122	Local agent host default-on (Insiders only)	Watchpoint: when this reaches Stable, deferred-tool resolution may shift. No action until first observed behavior change.
1.123	Session sync + /chronicle	Chat sessions auto-sync to the GitHub account (gated by chat.sessionSync.enabled, org-managed). The /chronicle slash command queries that history. The brain's own chronicle skill is local-only; the platform feature is an adjacent capability, not a replacement.
1.123	Sandbox network-retry	When a local-agent terminal command needs an unallowed domain, VS Code auto-retries inside the sandbox with unrestricted network before falling back to unsandboxed (chat.agent.sandbox.retryWithAllowNetworkRequests). Reduces spurious failures on git fetch / npm install.
1.124	Autopilot enabled by default	Autopilot Preview is now on by default; chat.permissions.default controls the per-workspace level. ACT's heir-workspace baseline pins default as the deliberate opt-out — see heir-workspace-settings-baseline.json.
1.124	Advanced Autopilot (opt-in)	chat.autopilot.advanced.enabled uses a utility model to judge when a task is truly done. Capped at 3 iterations. Off by default; opt-in only.
1.124	Enterprise Copilot plugin policies	chat.plugins.enabledPlugins / chat.plugins.extraMarketplaces / chat.plugins.strictMarketplaces let org admins allowlist plugin IDs and marketplaces. Heirs in regulated orgs may see Mall installs silently blocked or marketplaces tagged as policy-managed; surface a clear message rather than retrying when an install refuses.
1.125

Skill Picker — Never Strip the Description

The SKILL.md description field has three consumers and the slash-picker tooltip is the least important of them:

1. Agent skill discovery (primary) — every session loads SKILL.md descriptions into the <skills> block; this is how the parent agent decides whether to invoke the skill
2. Brain QA enforcement — where a brain-qa script exists (Alex_ACT_Steward ships one as scripts/brain-qa.cjs), it hard-fails on missing/empty description
3. Chat picker tooltip — the surface visible to humans

Keep Agent Skills enabled, but disable the experimental generic resolver. VS Code 1.131 advertises plugin-contributed skills that its generic skill tool cannot resolve. Until microsoft/vscode#314772 closes and a plugin-skill probe passes, use this user-level shape:

"chat.useAgentSkills": true,
"github.copilot.chat.skillTool.enabled": false

This restores file-based loading and namespaced command fallbacks. Never strip the skill description as a workaround; descriptions remain the discovery signal.

Related

• browser-tools skill — Playwright / browser automation specifics (uses the deferred-tool discipline this skill owns)
• skill-review / skill-creator (Alex ACT Steward, not shipped in Core) — the frontmatter description discipline this skill guards against being stripped

Would Revise If

Revise if the categories table goes stale (VS Code adds new deferred tool families not listed), if the search-query patterns produce zero results for tools that availableDeferredTools lists as present, if the platform-changes table drifts more than 2 VS Code releases behind current, or if VS Code renames github.copilot.chat.skillTool.enabled.

Skill resolver section falsifier: revise by 2026-11-03 or sooner if VS Code renames or removes github.copilot.chat.skillTool.enabled, closes microsoft/vscode#314772, or an enabled plugin skill succeeds through the generic skill tool in a clean Agent mode session. First observed contradiction wins.