{"slug": "agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app", "title": "Agent Plugins 1.0 in VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app", "summary": "GitHub released Agent Plugins 1.0 on August 6, an open standard that packages agent skills and MCP servers into a single installable plugin, with support from AWS, Anysphere, Microsoft, OpenAI, Vercel, and Google as a core maintainer. The standard is now generally available in VS Code, Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot SDK, and the GitHub Copilot app on all Copilot plans, allowing developers to build a plugin once and use it across compatible clients. Existing GitHub Copilot plugins remain supported without migration, and Copilot Business and Enterprise customers can govern plugins via existing managed settings.", "body_md": "# Agent Plugins 1.0 in VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app\n\nYou can now build a plugin once and use it across all compatible agent clients. We published Agent Plugins 1.0 on August 6 with AWS, Anysphere, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel. Google also joined as a core maintainer on the same day. Agent Plugins 1.0 is an open standard that packages agent skills and MCP servers into one installable plugin that is governed independently of any single vendor.\n\nPublishing a plugin for several agents was already possible, but it cost you duplication. A plugin can bundle a skill with an MCP server, such as a deployment runbook and its tool integration. While the skill and the server underneath were the same for every client, the packaging around them wasn’t, so you maintained a separate manifest and directory layout for each one.\n\nSupport is generally available in VS Code, Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot SDK, and the GitHub Copilot app, on all Copilot plans.\n\n[What you can do](#what-you-can-do)\n\n**Install spec plugins from a marketplace.** You can find plugins in the[Awesome Copilot marketplace](https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot), available by default in VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app.**Share one plugin across tools.** Compatible clients can discover the skills and MCP server configuration they support from the same package.**Keep your existing plugins.** Existing GitHub Copilot plugins that don’t target Agent Plugins 1.0 remain supported, with no migration required.\n\n[Building or migrating a plugin](#building-or-migrating-a-plugin)\n\nIf you maintain a plugin, adopting the spec is mostly manifest work:\n\n- Add\n`$schema`\n\nto`plugin.json`\n\n- Keep skills under\n`skills/`\n\nand MCP configuration in`mcp.json`\n\n- Move Copilot-specific files into the\n`com.github.copilot/`\n\ndirectory, which other clients ignore\n\nThat last step is what keeps a plugin portable without giving anything up. The spec standardizes skills and MCP servers, so Copilot capabilities beyond those live in the namespaced directory. Custom agents, commands, rules, and hooks load from there across VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app, and the CLI and app also load extensions such as canvases. One package stays portable and keeps its Copilot behavior.\n\nSee [Build an Agent Plugin](https://agent-plugins.org/plugin-authors) for the minimal package and where each component goes, or start from the [example plugin and migration guide](https://github.com/agentplugins/agent-plugins-example).\n\n[Govern plugins with the settings you already use](#govern-plugins-with-the-settings-you-already-use)\n\nAs plugins become portable across tools, organizations need a consistent way to manage which plugins are available to developers. Copilot Business and Enterprise customers can use existing enterprise managed settings across VS Code, Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot app, and Copilot cloud agent.\n\nIn `managed-settings.json`\n\n, use `enabledPlugins`\n\nto automatically install or block specific plugins, `extraKnownMarketplaces`\n\nto add marketplaces available to developers, and `strictKnownMarketplaces`\n\nto restrict installation to managed marketplaces. Enterprise values establish a baseline, and plugin and marketplace settings combine additively with approved team-specific overrides. To learn more, see [our docs on setting overrides for specific teams](https://docs.github.com/copilot/how-tos/administer-copilot/manage-for-enterprise/manage-agents/configure-enterprise-managed-settings#overriding-settings-for-specific-teams).\n\nIf you already manage these plugin settings for supported Copilot clients, they also apply to Agent Plugins 1.0. No separate Agent Plugins policy is required.\n\nPlugins can also carry MCP server configurations, so pair this with MCP allowlists, which approve or block individual servers by URL, command, or name.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app", "canonical_source": "https://github.blog/changelog/2026-08-12-agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app", "published_at": "2026-08-12 18:39:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-12 20:12:27.413930+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-agents", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["GitHub", "AWS", "Anysphere", "Microsoft", "OpenAI", "Vercel", "Google", "VS Code"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/agent-plugins-1-0-in-vs-code-copilot-cli-and-the-copilot-app.jsonld"}}