copilot-sdk_skill

Overview

This skill helps you embed GitHub Copilot's agentic runtime into applications using JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, or .NET. It provides a production-tested client, session management, streaming responses, custom tool definitions, and optional MCP server integrations. Use it to build interactive assistants, programmable agents, and apps that invoke external tools during reasoning.

How this skill works

The SDK exposes a Copilot client that creates sessions configured with a model, streaming option, tools, and MCP servers. Sessions accept prompts and emit events (deltas, tool calls, idle) so you can stream output and react to tool invocations. You register tool handlers (with parameter schemas) that the agent can call; the SDK runs the handler and returns results back to the agent.

When to use it

• Embedding an agentic assistant in a web app, CLI, or backend service
• Creating custom tools the agent can call during reasoning (APIs, DB queries, system actions)
• Implementing streaming responses for low-latency UX
• Managing multi-turn sessions with state and tool invocations
• Connecting to MCP servers for repository, issue, and PR access

Best practices

• Start sessions with streaming enabled for better perceived responsiveness
• Define clear tool descriptions and strict parameter schemas so the agent calls them reliably
• Keep handlers idempotent and fast; return structured results the agent can incorporate
• Limit client lifetime and call client.stop() to release resources
• Use MCP server config only for trusted servers and scope access appropriately

Example use cases

• Interactive CLI weather assistant that defines a get_weather tool and streams responses
• Web-based programming assistant that edits files and invokes repo-aware MCP tools
• Customer support bot that calls backend APIs as defined tools to fetch user data
• Monitoring dashboard that uses streaming sessions to push realtime analysis
• Automation agent that orchestrates tasks by calling custom tools with schemas