Copilot CLI commands and subcommands

Launch the interactive user interface.

Open the GitHub Copilot app in the current directory, deep-linking to a new session. Falls back to the app's download page in a browser, or prints the URL if no browser is available.

Print a shell script that enables tab completion for copilot subcommands, options, known option values, and copilot config keys and values.

bash, zsh, fish

Read or change Copilot settings from the command line outside an interactive session; the non-interactive counterpart to /settings. Keys use dot notation; an unset key exits with status 1 and secret values are redacted.

Booleans accept on/off or true/false; numbers for numeric settings; an accepted choice for enums

Display help information, optionally for a topic.

Topics: billing, config, commands, environment, logging, monitoring, permissions, providers, sandbox

Analyze the codebase and write or update .github/copilot-instructions.md with project-specific guidance. Accepts --sandbox or --no-sandbox for the initialization session only.

Authenticate with Copilot via OAuth. Uses the browser web flow on local terminals and the device code flow on remote terminals or CI; the token is stored in the system credential store, or a plain text file under ~/.copilot/ if none is found.

Manage MCP server configurations from the command line without starting an interactive session.

List all configured MCP servers grouped by source, including plugin-provided and built-in servers. Disabled servers show a (disabled) suffix, or "enabled": false in JSON.

Show configuration and tools for a specific server, including source plugin name and version for plugin-provided servers and a Status: Enabled/Disabled line.

Add a server to the user configuration in ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json. Provide the command after -- for local stdio servers, or a transport and URL for remote servers.

Enable a server by name; the change persists to the user configuration and applies to future sessions.

Disable a server by name; the change persists to the user configuration and applies to future sessions.

Remove a user-level server. Workspace servers must be edited in their configuration files directly.

Manage plugins and plugin marketplaces non-interactively. copilot plugins (plural) is a legacy alias.

Install a plugin (alias add) from a marketplace, GitHub repository, repository subdirectory, Git URL, or local path.

plugin@marketplace, OWNER/REPO, OWNER/REPO:PATH/TO/PLUGIN, https://github.com/o/r.git, ./my-plugin or /abs/path

Remove a plugin (aliases remove, rm).

List installed plugins. With --json, emits a flat array of rows shaped { name, marketplace?, version?, enabled, source, installedFrom? }.

Update a named plugin; use --all to update every installed plugin.

Enable a previously disabled plugin; persists to configuration and applies to future sessions, for marketplace and direct installs alike.

Disable a plugin without uninstalling it. A --plugin-dir mount stays read-only.

Register a marketplace (owner/repo, owner/repo#ref, a URL, or a local path). The marketplace's own name from marketplace.json becomes its registration key. The subcommand group has the alias marketplaces.

List every registered marketplace, including the built-in default (awesome-copilot). Supports --json.

List the plugins offered by a marketplace's catalog. Supports --json.

Re-fetch a marketplace's plugin catalog (alias refresh); omit NAME to refresh every registered marketplace.

Unregister a marketplace. Refused if its plugins are still installed unless --force is passed, which also uninstalls them. The built-in awesome-copilot marketplace cannot be removed.

Non-interactively list custom instruction sources discovered for the current working directory. Replaces the retired copilot plugins list --kind instruction.

Non-interactively list configured language servers (inspect-only). Replaces the retired copilot plugins list --kind lsp.

Report the sandbox proxy certificate authority's trust state without changing anything.

Create the sandbox certificate authority if needed, without trusting it.

Add the authority (default: your own) to OS trust. Run as the user who runs the CLI, not elevated or as root.

Replace the authority, preserving its current trust state.

Remove the authority from OS trust; the bundle-based path keeps working.

List all discovered skills. JSON rows have the shape { name, description, source, path, enabled }.

Add a skill from a file path, URL, or directory. A directory is registered as a custom skill source; a file or URL is copied into the personal or project skills directory.

Remove a personal or project skill by name, or unregister a custom skill directory (leaving its files on disk). Plugin and built-in skills cannot be removed this way.

Enable a skill by name.

Disable a skill by name.

Download and install the latest version.

Display version information and check for updates.

Run a dynamic workflow registered by an extension without a chat prompt, waiting for it to finish or stop. Uses the CLI's auth, model, permission, and sandbox settings and shows no approval prompts; exit codes are 0, 1, 2, and 130.