ado-repositories

name	ado-repositories
description	Use when the user asks about Azure DevOps Git repositories, branches, source files, commit history, or wants to create a branch. "list repos in the Platform project", "show the file structure of the api-gateway repo", "read the content of appsettings.json", "what branches exist in backend", "create a branch feature/my-feature from main", "show recent commits on the release/2.0 branch", "find commits by Alice last week", "what changed in the last merge to main", "show me the YAML pipeline file"
license	MIT
metadata	{"version":"1.0"}

ADO Repositories

Browse Azure DevOps Git repositories, explore files and folders, view branch lists, read file contents, inspect commit history, and create branches.

When to use

• User wants to list all repositories in a project
• User wants to navigate the file tree of a repository
• User wants to read the content of a specific file
• User wants to see which branches exist
• User wants to create a new branch (e.g. from main for a feature)
• User wants to see commit history for a branch or file
• User wants to find commits by a specific author or in a date range

MCP tools used

Tool	Purpose
repo_repository	List repositories or get metadata for a specific repo
repo_branch	List branches in a repository
repo_create_branch	Create a new branch from a source ref
repo_file	Read file content or list directory contents
repo_search_commits	Search commit history with filters

Workflow

Listing repositories

1. Call repo_repository(project) — returns all repos with name, ID, default branch, size, and last update time.
2. Present the Repository List table.

Browsing files

1. Identify: repository name and optional path.
2. Call repo_file(repo, path, branch) with path = "/" for root listing.
3. For a folder: returns child items (files and subfolders).
4. For a file: returns the raw content.
5. If the content is code, present it in a fenced code block with the correct language tag.

Listing branches

1. Call repo_branch(repo) — returns all branches with name, last commit hash, last commit date, and author.
2. Present the Branch List table.

Creating a branch

1. Identify: repo, new branch name, and source branch (default: main).
2. Confirm with the user before proceeding (branch creation is a write operation).
3. Call repo_create_branch(repo, newBranchName, sourceBranch).
4. Confirm with the new branch name and its source commit.

Commit history

1. Identify: repo, branch (optional), author filter (optional), date range (optional).
2. Call repo_search_commits(repo, branch, author, fromDate, toDate, top).
3. Present the Commit History table.

Output Format

Repository List

Repository	Default Branch	Last Updated	Size
api-gateway	main	2h ago	4.2 MB
identity-service	main	1d ago	1.8 MB
shared-lib	main	3d ago	0.6 MB

Branch List

Branch	Last Commit	Author	Date
main	a1b2c3d	Alice Martin	2h ago
feature/redis	e4f5a6b	Carlos Silva	4h ago
release/2.0	c7d8e9f	Bob Nguyen	1d ago

Commit History

Hash	Message	Author	Date
a1b2c3d	fix: refresh token before expiry (#1058)	Alice Martin	2h ago
b2c3d4e	feat: add Redis cache layer	Carlos Silva	1d ago
c3d4e5f	chore: update dependencies	Bob Nguyen	2d ago

Notes

• File content returned by repo_file is base64-encoded for binary files. For text files, decode and present as a code block.
• Branch names may contain slashes (e.g. feature/my-feature). Pass them URL-encoded if the MCP tool requires it.
• Confirm branch creation before calling repo_create_branch — this is a write operation that cannot be easily undone without repo admin access.
• To read a pipeline YAML file, use repo_file(repo, 'azure-pipelines.yml', branch).

Active context

This skill respects the session context set by the ado-context skill.

• If activeProject is set, use it automatically as the project parameter — do not ask the user to re-specify it.
• If no context is set and a project is required, invoke Workflow E of ado-context to resolve it (list projects, ask user to pick, then proceed).