Skills

Skills are multi-step procedures that teach Copilot how to accomplish a specific task. Unlike instructions (passive coding standards) or agents (interactive personas), skills are invoked on demand and guide Copilot through a sequence of concrete actions.

How Skills Differ

Aspect	Instruction	Agent	Skill
Activation	Auto by glob	User invokes `@agent`	User invokes or agent delegates
Content	Rules and standards	Personality + tools	Step-by-step procedure
Structure	Single `.md` file	Single `.agent.md` file	Folder with `SKILL.md`
Purpose	”How to write code"	"Who answers"	"How to accomplish a task”
Assets	None	None	Optional templates, scripts, examples

Folder Structure

Every skill lives in its own folder under skills/. The folder name must match the name field in the SKILL.md frontmatter:


skills/
  fai-deploy-container-app/
    SKILL.md                    # Required — the skill procedure
    templates/                  # Optional — scaffolding templates
      container-app.bicep
    scripts/                    # Optional — automation scripts
      deploy.sh
    examples/                   # Optional — example outputs
      successful-deployment.md

⚠️

Name Must Match Folder

The name field in SKILL.md frontmatter must exactly equal the parent folder name. Validation will reject mismatches.

Frontmatter Schema

skills/fai-deploy-container-app/SKILL.md


---
name: "fai-deploy-container-app"
description: "Deploys a FrootAI solution play to Azure Container Apps with managed identity, Key Vault integration, and health probes."
---

Field	Required	Validation
`name`	✅	Must be kebab-case, must match parent folder name
`description`	✅	10–1024 characters

Writing a Complete Skill

A production skill has numbered steps, runnable code blocks, verification checks, and a troubleshooting table. Skills should be 150+ lines with detailed guidance:

skills/fai-deploy-container-app/SKILL.md


---
name: "fai-deploy-container-app"
description: "Deploys a FrootAI solution play to Azure Container Apps with managed identity, Key Vault integration, and health probes."
---
 
# Deploy to Azure Container Apps
 
## Purpose
 
Deploy any FrootAI solution play as a containerized service on Azure Container Apps.
 
## Prerequisites
 
- Azure CLI installed and logged in (`az login`)
- Docker installed (for building the container image)
- Azure subscription with Contributor access
 
## Step 1: Set Environment Variables
 
```bash
PLAY_NUM="01"
PLAY_NAME="enterprise-rag"
RG="rg-frootai-${PLAY_NAME}"
LOCATION="eastus2"
```
 
## Step 2: Create Resources
 
```bash
az group create --name $RG --location $LOCATION
az acr create --name $ACR_NAME --resource-group $RG --sku Basic
```
 
## Verification
 
1. Health endpoint returns 200
2. Container app has 1+ running replicas
 
## Troubleshooting
 
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---------|-------|-----|
| Image pull fails | ACR auth not configured | Enable managed identity |
| Health probe fails | Wrong port or path | Check Bicep targetPort |

Naming Conventions

Pattern	Example	Use Case
`fai-build-*`	`fai-build-rag-pipeline`	Create something from scratch
`fai-deploy-*`	`fai-deploy-container-app`	Deploy to Azure
`fai-evaluate-*`	`fai-evaluate-rag-quality`	Run quality evaluation
`fai-tune-*`	`fai-tune-model-params`	Optimize configurations
`fai-scaffold-*`	`fai-scaffold-play`	Generate boilerplate
`fai-debug-*`	`fai-debug-context-wiring`	Diagnostic procedures

All folder and file names must be lowercase-hyphen.

Bundled Assets

Skills can optionally include templates, scripts, and examples:


fai-deploy-container-app/
  SKILL.md               # Required
  templates/              # Bicep, JSON, YAML templates
  scripts/                # Executable scripts (bash, PowerShell)
  examples/               # Example outputs for reference

ℹ️

Size Limit

Bundled assets should total under 5MB per skill folder.

Wiring into Plays and Plugins

Reference skills in a play’s fai-manifest.json:


{
  "primitives": {
    "skills": [
      "../../skills/fai-deploy-container-app/",
      "./.github/skills/run-semantic-review/"
    ]
  }
}

Or in a plugin’s plugin.json:


{
  "skills": ["../../skills/fai-deploy-container-app/"]
}

Validation


npm run validate:primitives

Checks that every skill has:

name matching parent folder name (kebab-case)
description between 10–1024 characters
SKILL.md file exists in the folder