Installation & Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A Bash-compatible shell — macOS and Linux work out of the box. On Windows, install Git for Windows and use Git Bash.
• Azure CLI, GitHub CLI, jq, and git — installed and authenticated.

Quick check

Run /prereq-check in Copilot Chat after installation. It validates every tool and auth session for you and shows platform-specific install commands for anything missing.

Which installation method should I use?

Method	Best for	Requirements
VS Code plugin	Day-to-day Azure deployments from your editor	VS Code + Copilot + chat.plugins.enabled
Copilot CLI plugin	Terminal-first workflows or CI scripting	Copilot CLI
Local dev install	Contributing to Git-Ape itself	Git clone of the repo
GitHub Codespaces	Trying Git-Ape without any local setup	GitHub account

Most users should start with the VS Code plugin. If you just want to try Git-Ape without installing anything, jump to Codespaces.

Option A: VS Code agent plugin (recommended)

Your organization must have the chat.plugins.enabled setting set to true. If you are unsure, ask your admin or try the steps below — VS Code will tell you if plugins are disabled.

1. Add the Git-Ape marketplace to your VS Code settings.json:

   "chat.plugins.marketplaces": [
       "Azure/git-ape"
   ]

2. Open the Extensions view (⇧⌘X on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux), search for @agentPlugins, find git-ape, and select Install.

   Alternatively, open the Command Palette (⇧⌘P / Ctrl+Shift+P), run Chat: Install Plugin From Source, and enter https://github.com/Azure/git-ape.

3. Verify the agents and skills appear in Copilot Chat — type @git-ape or /prereq-check.

Option B: Copilot CLI plugin

copilot plugin marketplace add Azure/git-ape
copilot plugin install git-ape@git-ape
copilot plugin list   # Should show: git-ape@git-ape

Option C: Local development install

Use this if you are contributing to Git-Ape or want to test local changes.

git clone https://github.com/Azure/git-ape.git

Register the local checkout in your VS Code settings.json:

"chat.pluginLocations": {
    "/absolute/path/to/git-ape": true
}

Reload VS Code; the @git-ape agent and skills will appear in Copilot Chat.

Verify installation

In Copilot Chat, type:

@git-ape hello

You should see the Git-Ape orchestrator respond. If it does not, reload the VS Code window (Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window).

What's next?

You have Git-Ape installed. Here is the recommended path depending on what you want to do:

• Azure Setup — Connect Git-Ape to your Azure subscription so it can deploy resources.
• Onboarding — Configure OIDC, RBAC, and GitHub environments for CI/CD pipelines.
• Codespaces — Spin up a ready-to-use dev environment in your browser.