Sharing an agent integration across tools has required separate packaging for each client. Agent Plugins 1.0 provides a common format.

That’s the problem GitHub says Agent Plugins 1.0 fixes. The open standard, published August 6, is now generally available in VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI (the version you run by typing commands instead of clicking through an editor), the Copilot SDK (the toolkit other developers use to build their own products on top of Copilot), and the Copilot app, on every Copilot plan.

What actually changed

An agent plugin can bundle a skill, written instructions for a task, with an MCP server, which connects agents to outside tools. For example, a deployment runbook can travel with its tool integration.

Before Agent Plugins 1.0, the skill and the MCP server underneath were the same no matter which client ran them. The packaging around them wasn’t. You maintained a separate manifest (a file that lists what’s in the package and how to load it) and folder layout for VS Code versus the CLI versus any other client, even though nothing about the actual behavior changed. Agent Plugins 1.0 replaces that with one package format that any compatible client can read.

It’s not just a GitHub project

The more notable part of this release is who signed on to maintain the spec alongside GitHub: AWS, Anysphere (the company that builds Cursor), Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel at launch, with Google joining as a core maintainer the same day.

Those maintainers are agreeing on one packaging format. The shared format reduces packaging work when moving plugins between compatible tools.

One important caveat: the general availability GitHub announced applies to GitHub’s own Copilot surfaces, VS Code, Copilot CLI, the Copilot SDK, and the Copilot app. Check each client’s Agent Plugins support before relying on portability. Maintaining the standard does not by itself confirm a product can load the package.

What you can do with it right now

Inside VS Code, Copilot CLI, or the Copilot app, you can browse the Awesome Copilot marketplace, which ships by default in all three, and install any plugin built to the new spec. If you already maintain custom Copilot plugins that don’t target Agent Plugins 1.0, GitHub says they keep working with no forced migration.

GitHub says adoption is mostly a manifest update:

  • Add $schema to plugin.json to identify the packaging format.
  • Keep instructions under skills/ and MCP configuration in mcp.json.
  • Move Copilot-only files into com.github.copilot/, which other clients ignore.

The part worth checking before you install anything

An agent plugin isn’t just documentation. It can bundle an MCP server, which is real code that gets access to whatever tools and data you connect it to, potentially including your repository (the codebase and history for the project you’re working in). Review the server’s behavior and requested access before connecting project data.

Before installing a plugin you don’t already trust, check who published it and where its source lives in the marketplace listing. Copilot Business and Enterprise admins can govern plugins through managed-settings.json. enabledPlugins can install or block specific plugins; strictKnownMarketplaces restricts installation to managed marketplaces. Admins can also allowlist or block individual MCP servers by name, command, or URL.

This isn’t a new risk Agent Plugins introduced. The same risk applies to GitHub Copilot code review with skills and MCP support: read-only access to an MCP server can still surface context you didn’t intend to share. Agent Plugins 1.0 makes installing that access easier, which makes checking the source before you do it more important, not less.

What builders should do next

Open the Awesome Copilot marketplace inside VS Code or Copilot CLI and look for a skill or MCP server you already use as a one-off setup. If it now ships as a single Agent Plugins package, the common format reduces separate packaging across those clients. Confirm any credentials or client-specific setup it still needs.

If you maintain a team plugin, follow the packaging steps above. Test it by installing the updated plugin in two different clients, like VS Code and Copilot CLI, and confirming both load the intended skills and server configuration.

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