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`--plugin-dir` skills load but are omitted from `/skills` and `/env`

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#4,886 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli

Research direction

Reproduce the issue with the local plugin's plugin.json and skills/sample-skill/SKILL.md, then compare the interactive /env and /skills list results with skill list --json. Trace which skill inventory each command uses; done means enabled plugin skills appear in both interactive views and remain available for explicit invocation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

triage
Describe the bug

Skills supplied by a local plugin loaded with --plugin-dir are discovered by the backend but are omitted from the interactive /skills dashboard and /env output.

The same invocation's non-interactive copilot skill list --json output includes the plugin skills with "source": "plugin" and "enabled": true. Startup diagnostics also report plugin skills loaded with no skill errors or warnings. This suggests the interactive views are using a different or stale skill registry.

Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.86-1

Steps to reproduce the behavior
  1. Create a local plugin such as C:\temp\sample-plugin with a root plugin.json containing "skills": "skills/".
  2. Add a valid skill at skills/sample-skill/SKILL.md with name and description frontmatter.
  3. Start an interactive session: 
    copilot --experimental --plugin-dir "C:\temp\sample-plugin"
  4. Run /env and /skills list in the interactive session.
  5. In a separate terminal, run: 
    copilot --experimental --plugin-dir "C:\temp\sample-plugin" skill list --json
  6. Observe that the non-interactive command lists the enabled plugin skill, while /env and /skills list in the interactive session omit it.
Expected behavior

/env and /skills list should display every enabled plugin skill loaded into the interactive session, matching copilot skill list --json. Plugin-provided skills should also be available for explicit invocation.

Additional context
  • Operating system: Windows 11 x64
  • The plugin itself is listed as an enabled external plugin by copilot plugin list.
  • Other plugin components load successfully.
  • Skill diagnostics report no loading errors or warnings.
  • This resembles earlier reports where plugin skills were usable or discovered internally but absent from the interactive skill inventory, but this reproduction uses an explicit local --plugin-dir plugin.
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