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[bot] Add Critic agent and built-in skills documentation (v1.0.17–v1.0.18) #50

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[bot] Add Critic agent and built-in skills documentation (v1.0.17–v1.0.18) #50

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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions 04-agents-custom-instructions/README.md
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Expand Up @@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ Never used or made an agent? Here's all you need to know to get started for this
| **Plan** | `/plan` or `Shift+Tab` (cycle modes) | Creates step-by-step implementation plans before coding |
| **Code-review** | `/review` | Reviews staged/unstaged changes with focused, actionable feedback |
| **Init** | `/init` | Generates project configuration files (instructions, agents) |
| **Critic** | *Automatic (experimental)* | Automatically reviews plans and complex implementations using a complementary model to catch errors early. Available when using Claude models with experimental mode enabled (`--experimental`). |
| **Explore** | *Automatic* | Used internally when you ask Copilot to explore or analyze the codebase |
| **Task** | *Automatic* | Executes commands like tests, builds, lints, and dependency installs |
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7 changes: 5 additions & 2 deletions 05-skills/README.md
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Expand Up @@ -54,7 +54,9 @@ Learn what skills are, why they matter, and how they differ from agents and MCP.
copilot
> /skills list
```
This shows all skills Copilot can find in your project and personal folders.
This shows all skills Copilot can find — including **built-in skills that ship with the CLI** as well as any project or personal skills you've created.

> 💡 **Built-in skills**: Starting with v1.0.17, the Copilot CLI includes built-in skills out of the box. The first built-in skill is a guide for customizing the Copilot cloud agent's environment (e.g., pre-installing tools and dependencies via `copilot-setup-steps.yml`). You'll see it listed as `customizing-copilot-cloud-agents-environment` when you run `/skills list`. These built-in skills are always available without any setup needed.

2. **Look at a real skill file:** Check out our provided [code-checklist SKILL.md](../.github/skills/code-checklist/SKILL.md) to see the pattern. It's just YAML frontmatter plus markdown instructions.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -267,14 +269,15 @@ Build your own skills from SKILL.md files.

## Skill Locations

Skills are stored in `.github/skills/` (project-specific) or `~/.copilot/skills/` (user level).
Skills are stored in `.github/skills/` (project-specific) or `~/.copilot/skills/` (user level). The CLI also includes **built-in skills** that are always available without any setup.

### How Copilot Finds Skills

Copilot automatically scans these locations for skills:

| Location | Scope |
|----------|-------|
| **Built-in** | Included with the CLI — always available, no setup needed |
| `.github/skills/` | Project-specific (shared with team via git) |
| `~/.copilot/skills/` | User-specific (your personal skills) |

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