feat: Support agent skills in agent mode and add preferences settings by ethanyhou · Pull Request #133 · microsoft/copilot-for-eclipse

ethanyhou · 2026-04-29T08:57:19Z

Create SKILL.md files across directories:

    '.github/skills/**/SKILL.md',
    '.claude/skills/**/SKILL.md',
    '.agents/skills/**/SKILL.md',
    '~/.copilot/skills/**/SKILL.md',
    '~/.claude/skills/**/SKILL.md',
    '~/.agents/skills/**/SKILL.md'

Go to preference page to enable the skill:
Switch to agent mode and type /, the skills should be rendered / hide corresponding to the preference settings.
Skills is only enabled in agent mode, this is a CLS side behavior.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

…pilot-for-eclipse into ethan/support-skill

ethanyhou · 2026-04-29T08:59:30Z

+  /**
+   * Returns a priority for how well the template matches the prefix (lower is better),
+   * or -1 if it does not match at all.
+   *
+   * <p>Priority buckets:
+   *  0 – id starts with prefix (or prefix is empty)
+   *  1 – id contains prefix (or skill shortDescription contains prefix)
+   *  2 – description starts with prefix
+   *  3 – description contains prefix
+   */
+  private int getMatchPriority(ConversationTemplate template, String lowerPrefix) {
+    if (lowerPrefix.isEmpty()) {
+      return 0;
    }
-    ConversationTemplate[] templates = commandService.getTemplates();
-    for (ConversationTemplate template : templates) {
-      if (prefix.isEmpty() || template.getId().startsWith(prefix)) {
-        proposals.add(new ChatCompletionProposal(ChatCompletionService.TEMPLATE_MARK, template.getId(),
-            template.getDescription()));
-      }
+    boolean isSkill = template.source() == TemplateSource.SKILL;
+    String id = template.id() != null ? template.id().toLowerCase() : "";
+    String desc = template.description() != null ? template.description().toLowerCase() : "";
+    String shortDesc = template.shortDescription() != null ? template.shortDescription().toLowerCase() : "";
+
+    if (id.startsWith(lowerPrefix)) {
+      return 0;
+    } else if (id.contains(lowerPrefix) || (isSkill && shortDesc.contains(lowerPrefix))) {
+      return 1;
+    } else if (desc.startsWith(lowerPrefix)) {
+      return 2;
+    } else if (desc.contains(lowerPrefix)) {
+      return 3;
    }
-    return proposals.toArray(new ICompletionProposal[proposals.size()]);
+    return -1;
  }


The priority aligns with Jetbrains

ethanyhou · 2026-04-29T09:01:11Z

@@ -359,6 +426,73 @@ private void assertExists(ProbeStep step) {
    }
  }


Please check if this change influence the existing testing.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds Skills support to Copilot Chat’s Agent experience by wiring a new “Enable Skills” preference through to CLS settings, extending the conversation templates LSP request to include workspace folders (so CLS can discover SKILL.md / .prompt.md), and updating UI/test infrastructure to validate skills rendering via SWTBot probes.

Changes:

Add “Enable Skills” preference (UI strings, preference page UI, defaults) and propagate it to language server settings.
Extend conversation/templates request to include workspace folders; enrich template model with source (BUILTIN/PROMPT/SKILL) and update completion filtering/sorting.
Add SWTBot probe actions + a new probe script to validate skills appear/disappear based on the preference.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 22 out of 22 changed files in this pull request and generated 10 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/messages.properties	Adds UI strings for Skills toggle; adjusts sub-agent label.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/Messages.java	Adds NLS keys for Skills toggle.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/LanguageServerSettingManager.java	Syncs `enableSkills` to CLS settings, including live updates.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/CopilotPreferenceInitializer.java	Sets default values for sub-agent + skills toggles.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/ChatPreferencesPage.java	Adds “Enable Skills” field editor; refactors layout helpers.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/ChatCompletionService.java	Refreshes templates using workspace folders; listens for skill/prompt file changes + pref changes.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/ChatAssistProcessor.java	Filters templates by mode scope and improves matching/sorting; displays skills using short description.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/preferences/LanguageServerSettingManagerTests.java	Updates mocks for the new preference key.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/McpExtensionPointManagerTest.java	Fixes test setup to avoid NPE; improves null-map assertion.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/ChatCompletionServiceTest.java	Updates tests for new templates API + job family; adds static mocking of CopilotUi.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/swtbot/test/probe/StepExecutor.java	Adds new probe actions (preferences, workspace file ops, job waiting, content-assist assertions, key typing).
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/swtbot/test/probe/ProbeStep.java	Adds fields needed for the new probe actions.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/swtbot/test/probe/Locator.java	Documents new `checkBox` locator type.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/probe-scripts/skills-file-with-pref-001.json	New probe validating Skills enabled/disabled behavior.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/TemplateSource.java	New enum identifying template source type.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/CopilotAgentSettings.java	Adds `enableSkills` setting.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/ConversationTemplatesParams.java	New params record for `conversation/templates` request.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/ConversationTemplate.java	Converts template model to a record; adds `source`.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/CopilotLanguageServerConnection.java	Updates `listConversationTemplates` to pass workspace folders.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/CopilotLanguageServer.java	Updates LSP request signature for templates to accept params.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/Constants.java	Adds `ENABLE_SKILLS` preference key.
.github/skills/ui-action/SKILL.md	Documents new probe actions used by the skills probe script.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/ChatCompletionService.java:120

InterruptedException is caught and only logged here. The thread interrupt flag should be restored (Thread.currentThread().interrupt()) so callers/framework code can react appropriately (e.g., job cancellation).

    } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
      CopilotCore.LOGGER.error(e);
    }

com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/ChatCompletionService.java:234

syncCommands() mutates the current HashSet/ArrayList instances via clear(). Since fetchAsync() updates these fields from a background Job, readers (e.g., isCommand() from the UI thread) can race with clear(), and HashSet/ArrayList are not thread-safe for concurrent reads+writes. Prefer swapping in new immutable/empty instances (e.g., Collections.emptySet()/emptyList()) to keep the snapshot swap pattern consistent and avoid concurrent mutation.

  private void syncCommands(String status) {
    switch (status) {
      case CopilotStatusResult.OK:
        fetchAsync();
        break;
      default:
        allCommands.clear();
        templates.clear();
        agents.clear();
        break;

Copilot · 2026-04-29T09:05:33Z

+  /**
+   * Extracts the underlying SWT {@link Widget} from an SWTBot wrapper via the
+   * public {@code widget} field. Uses reflection to avoid a compile-time
+   * dependency on {@code AbstractSWTBot} (which transitively pulls SLF4J).
+   */
+  private static Widget extractWidget(Object botWrapper) {
+    ReflectiveOperationException reflectErr = null;
+    try {
+      java.lang.reflect.Field f = botWrapper.getClass().getField("widget");
+      Object raw = f.get(botWrapper);
+      if (raw instanceof Widget) {
+        return (Widget) raw;
+      }
+    } catch (ReflectiveOperationException e) {
+      reflectErr = e;
+    }
+    if (botWrapper instanceof Widget) {
+      return (Widget) botWrapper;
+    }
+    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+        "Cannot extract SWT Widget from " + botWrapper.getClass().getSimpleName(),
+        reflectErr);
+  }


extractWidget() relies on reflection against a public field named "widget" (Class#getField). SWTBot wrappers typically don't expose this as a public field, so this can throw and break pressKey/typeKeys. Consider using a supported API (e.g., SWTBotWidget#widget or a common interface), or at least use getDeclaredField() and walk superclasses with setAccessible(true) to make this robust.

Copilot · 2026-04-29T09:05:34Z

+  @AfterAll
+  static void tearDown() {
+    if (copilotUiMock != null) {
+      copilotUiMock.close();
    }
  }


ChatCompletionService registers workspace and preference listeners in its constructor; this test never calls chatCompletionService.dispose(). That can leak listeners into other tests (or subsequent test classes) and cause flakiness. Call dispose() in @AfterAll (and null-check in case setup fails).

Copilot · 2026-04-29T09:05:34Z

+  /**
+   * Types text character-by-character via SWT event notification on the located
+   * widget. Unlike {@code typeIn} (which uses {@code setText}), this fires
+   * {@code KeyDown}/{@code KeyUp} events that trigger key listeners such as
+   * content-assist auto-activation.
+   */
+  private void typeKeys(ProbeStep step) {
+    Object botWidget = resolve(step.locator);
+    String payload = required(step.text, "text");
+    if (botWidget instanceof SWTBotStyledText) {
+      ((SWTBotStyledText) botWidget).setFocus();
+    } else if (botWidget instanceof SWTBotText) {
+      ((SWTBotText) botWidget).setFocus();
+    }
+    Widget target = extractWidget(botWidget);
+    for (char c : payload.toCharArray()) {
+      Display.getDefault().syncExec(() -> {
+        Event down = new Event();
+        down.type = SWT.KeyDown;
+        down.character = c;
+        down.keyCode = c;
+        target.notifyListeners(SWT.KeyDown, down);
+
+        Event up = new Event();
+        up.type = SWT.KeyUp;
+        up.character = c;
+        up.keyCode = c;
+        target.notifyListeners(SWT.KeyUp, up);
+      });


typeKeys() uses target.notifyListeners(SWT.KeyDown/KeyUp, ...) to "type" characters, but notifyListeners only invokes registered listeners and does not perform the widget's default key handling/text insertion. This makes the step unreliable for entering text (and for interacting with content-assist selection via ENTER). Prefer SWTBot's keyboard APIs (or AWT Robot) to generate real key events, or fall back to setText()+explicit content-assist invocation if available.

Copilot · 2026-04-29T09:05:35Z

  private void pressKey(ProbeStep step) {
    String key = required(step.key, "key");
-    org.eclipse.jface.bindings.keys.KeyStroke stroke = toKeystroke(key);
+    int[] keyInfo = resolveKey(key);
+    int keyCode = keyInfo[0];
+    char character = (char) keyInfo[1];
+    Display display = Display.getDefault();
+
+    // Resolve target widget: either the locator target or the display's focus control.
+    AtomicReference<Widget> targetRef = new AtomicReference<>();
    if (step.locator != null) {
-      Object widget = resolve(step.locator);
-      if (widget instanceof SWTBotStyledText) {
-        ((SWTBotStyledText) widget).pressShortcut(stroke);
-        return;
-      }
-      if (widget instanceof SWTBotText) {
-        ((SWTBotText) widget).pressShortcut(stroke);
-        return;
+      Object botWidget = resolve(step.locator);
+      if (botWidget instanceof SWTBotStyledText) {
+        ((SWTBotStyledText) botWidget).setFocus();
+      } else if (botWidget instanceof SWTBotText) {
+        ((SWTBotText) botWidget).setFocus();
      }
-      // Fall through to shell-level press if the widget wrapper lacks pressShortcut.
+      targetRef.set(extractWidget(botWidget));
+    }
+    if (targetRef.get() == null) {
+      display.syncExec(() -> targetRef.set(display.getFocusControl()));
+    }
+    Widget target = targetRef.get();
+    if (target == null) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("pressKey: no focused widget to receive key event");
+    }
+
+    display.syncExec(() -> {
+      Event down = new Event();
+      down.type = SWT.KeyDown;
+      down.keyCode = keyCode;
+      down.character = character;
+      target.notifyListeners(SWT.KeyDown, down);
+
+      Event up = new Event();
+      up.type = SWT.KeyUp;
+      up.keyCode = keyCode;
+      up.character = character;
+      target.notifyListeners(SWT.KeyUp, up);
+    });


pressKey() has the same issue as typeKeys(): notifyListeners(KeyDown/KeyUp) does not emulate real keyboard input, and may not trigger the default behavior of the focused control or the content-assist popup. Use SWTBot's keyboard/shortcut support (or Robot) to send actual key events to the UI.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

jdneo · 2026-04-30T05:27:26Z

+   */
+  private class SkillFileChangeListener implements IResourceChangeListener {
+    @Override
+    public void resourceChanged(IResourceChangeEvent event) {


Is there any notification that we can use to update the available templates?

I mean, here although we can listen to the workspace's change, what about the global's?

jdneo · 2026-04-30T05:34:28Z

-  private List<ConversationTemplate> templates = new ArrayList<>();
-  private List<ConversationAgent> agents = new ArrayList<>();
-  private HashSet<String> allCommands = new HashSet<>();
+  private volatile List<ConversationTemplate> templates = new ArrayList<>();


nit:

volatile makes the reference swap visible across threads, but the published ArrayList/HashSet instances are still mutable. Since this code appears to use a snapshot/copy-on-write pattern, consider publishing immutable snapshots with List.copyOf(...) and Set.copyOf(...). That would prevent accidental mutation of a collection after it has been published to other threads, making readers see a stable old-or-new snapshot instead of risking concurrent modification or inconsistent completion state.

kwin · 2026-04-30T11:10:14Z

Looking forward to it, however README should probably updated as well for this feature.

ethanyhou and others added 6 commits April 27, 2026 16:54

feat: add support for skills in agent settings and UI preferences

a35c2d3

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

test: enhance skill support with new actions and UI preferences test

a727518

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

refactor: streamline ChatPreferencesPage layout

68c427b

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

Adjusted menu context.

cf9e81c

Adjusted menu context.

99f62bb

Merge branch 'ethan/support-skill' of https://github.com/microsoft/co…

00c187c

…pilot-for-eclipse into ethan/support-skill

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings April 29, 2026 08:57

ethanyhou requested review from duzitong, jdneo and xinyi-gong as code owners April 29, 2026 08:57

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of ethanyhou April 29, 2026 08:57 View session

ethanyhou commented Apr 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

ethanyhou changed the title ~~Ethan/support skill~~ feat: Support agent skills in agent mode and add preferences settings Apr 29, 2026

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

ethanyhou and others added 2 commits April 29, 2026 17:20

Address comments.

92a9af8

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

refactor: optimize initialization of command, template, and agent lists

028b0b3

Co-authored-by: Copilot <copilot@github.com>

jdneo reviewed Apr 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

kwin mentioned this pull request Apr 30, 2026

New Features: When to support Agent Skills #65

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		@@ -359,6 +426,73 @@ private void assertExists(ProbeStep step) {
		}
		}

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ethanyhou commented Apr 29, 2026

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