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VS Code Copilot skills not working? Fix personal skills

You keep personal skills in ~/.claude/skills, VS Code lists that folder as a skill location, but Copilot chat in VS Code 1.143 never loads them. Project skills and plugin skills still work. As of October 2026, a user report in an open VS Code issue links this to chats now running on the Copilot CLI agent host by default. This guide covers what the docs and the issue say, and the workaround.

If you want the next step, read Codex VS Code extension not working? Roll back and pin it.

Quick fix

  • Check where your skill lives. If it's only in ~/.claude/skills, agent-host chats may skip it.
  • Link or copy it into ~/.agents/skills (or ~/.copilot/skills), then start a new chat.
  • Don't rely on chat.agentSkillsLocations for agent-host chats until the issue is fixed.

What’s going on

VS Code's agent skills docs list personal skill folders as ~/.copilot/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/, and project folders as .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/.

In issue #343749 (23 Oct 2026, VS Code 1.143.0), the reporter says that "since chats run on the Copilot CLI agent host by default", the chat.agentSkillsLocations setting "is no longer applied". Their analysis:

  • The agent host passes skill folders only for plugin and extension skills, not from chat.agentSkillsLocations.
  • The CLI runtime "only scans ~/.copilot/skills and ~/.agents/skills for personal skills". ~/.claude/skills is only scanned at the project level.

So a skill in ~/.claude/skills shows up in VS Code's default locations but is missing from the chat session. The reporter suspects custom paths added to chat.agentSkillsLocations are ignored too. The issue is open, and this is a user's analysis, not a confirmed diagnosis from the VS Code team.

Step 1: confirm it’s a personal skill problem

Ask the agent which skills it has, or trigger the skill by its description. If project skills (<repo>/.claude/skills, .github/skills) load but your ~/.claude/skills ones don't, you're likely seeing the issue above. Make sure each skill folder has a SKILL.md with valid name and description front matter.

Step 2: put personal skills where the agent host looks

The reporter's workaround, on Linux under WSL:

ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.agents/skills

Then start a new chat. They ran this with neither ~/.copilot/skills nor ~/.agents/skills already existing. If ~/.agents/skills already exists, link or copy the individual skill folders into it instead of replacing it. Both folders are documented personal skill locations, so this is designed to keep one copy of each skill working for Claude Code and for Copilot chat.

Step 3: if updates keep switching your chat back

In issue #343753 (23 Oct 2026), another user reports that "each time vscode updates, it switches my chat mode from local to copilot". If your setup depends on the local session, check which session type a new chat uses after each update.

A note on hooks

Hooks are a separate, manual step. As of October 2026, VS Code's guide to migrating customizations to the Copilot harness says hook migrations "do not appear as automatic conversions in the migration list", so moving your skills won't move your hooks.

Get the migration scripts

Disclosure: this is our own paid product. The Copilot Harness Port Kit is designed to help you keep chat on Local, move personal skills to folders the Copilot harness reads, and port your hooks. It has a script that links or copies your ~/.claude/skills into ~/.agents/skills or ~/.copilot/skills without touching your originals and can undo itself, a keep-Local settings script with a dry run and undo, and a hook config converter that saves its output as a staged .json.disabled file and warns about what still needs a human. Its 62 automated tests ran against local fixtures and temporary folders, not a live Copilot session or VS Code install, and symlinking was tested on Linux only. It doesn't fix microsoft/vscode#343749 or #343753, and it needs Node.js 20 or later. It costs $12 (plus VAT where applicable).

Sources

As of October 2026 (sources checked 24 Oct 2026):

  • VS Code docs, agent skills: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/agent-skills
  • GitHub issue #343749, agent-host chats ignore chat.agentSkillsLocations: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/343749
  • GitHub issue #343753, updates switch chat from local to Copilot: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/343753
  • VS Code docs, migrate customizations to the Copilot harness: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agent-customization/migrate-customizations

GitHub Copilot and GitHub, Visual Studio Code and Microsoft, Claude Code and Anthropic, and other names belong to their owners. Names are used only to identify products and compatibility. Stack & Ship is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.

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