Authoring Overview

Git-Ape is a GitHub Copilot agent plugin. The plugin manifest at the repo root declares two directories that Copilot discovers automatically:

plugin.json

{
  "name": "git-ape",
  "agents": ".github/agents/",
  "skills": ".github/skills/"
}

Everything else — prompts, eval suites, the CI matrix — supports the contents of those two directories.

Vocabulary

Term	File pattern	Discovered by	Purpose
Skill	.github/skills/<name>/SKILL.md	Plugin manifest (skills:)	A focused, callable capability with a documented procedure. Invoked by agents or directly with /<skill-name>.
Agent	.github/agents/<name>.agent.md	Plugin manifest (agents:)	A persona with a tools: allowlist that orchestrates one or more skills to deliver a workflow. Invoked with @<agent-name> in Copilot Chat or /<agent-name> in the CLI.
Prompt	.github/prompts/<name>.prompt.md	VS Code Chat prompt picker	A scripted authoring workflow (onboard, benchmark, improve, promote) you run while writing skills and agents. Not shipped to end users. Invoked with /<prompt-name>.
Eval suite	.github/evals/<name>/eval.yaml and .github/evals/agents/<name>/eval.yaml	microsoft/waza	A spec + tasks that score a skill or agent across models.

Repo layout

.github/
├── agents/
│   ├── azure-policy-advisor.agent.md
│   ├── git-ape.agent.md
│   └── ...
├── skills/
│   ├── azure-cost-estimator/SKILL.md
│   ├── prereq-check/SKILL.md
│   └── ...
├── prompts/
│   ├── skill-onboard.prompt.md
│   ├── skill-bench.prompt.md
│   ├── skill-improve.prompt.md
│   ├── skill-promote.prompt.md
│   ├── agent-onboard.prompt.md
│   ├── agent-bench.prompt.md
│   ├── agent-improve.prompt.md
│   └── agent-promote.prompt.md
├── evals/
│   ├── manifest.yaml                       # CI matrix configuration
│   ├── <skill-name>/eval.yaml              # Skill evals
│   └── agents/<agent-name>/eval.yaml       # Agent evals
└── workflows/
    ├── waza-evals.yml                      # Per-PR skill evals
    └── waza-agent-evals.yml                # Per-PR agent evals

plugin.json                                 # Plugin manifest
.waza.yaml                                  # Project-level waza config

When to add what

You want to…	Add a…
Wrap a single API or workflow step (cost lookup, policy query, naming rule check)	Skill
Coordinate several skills behind a persona (deployment, advisory, onboarding)	Agent
Score quality of a skill or agent across models	Eval suite
Scaffold, benchmark, or harden the skill or agent you just wrote	Reuse an existing prompt — onboard → bench → improve → promote covers the loop. New prompts are rarely needed.

Naming and registration

• Skill directory names and agent file basenames use lowercase kebab-case. The skill's SKILL.md frontmatter name: field must match the directory name; the agent's .agent.md frontmatter name: is a display name and is separate from the file basename.
• Adding a new file under .github/skills/<name>/ or .github/agents/<name>.agent.md is all you need to register it — there is no separate index to update. The plugin manifest scans the directories on load.
• For a new skill to appear in CI evals, append a { name, tier } entry to .github/evals/manifest.yaml and create .github/evals/<name>/eval.yaml. See Eval suites.

Read next

• Authoring skills — frontmatter, structure, and minimum bar
• Authoring agents — persona-lock, tools: taxonomy, sub-agent wiring
• Eval suites — what graders score, how tasks are structured
• Prompts — onboard, bench, improve, and promote your skill or agent from creation