VSCode Agent Plugins 1.0
VSCode now supports Agent Plugins 1.0!
Official blog post
Agent Plugins 1.0 in VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app
What is an Agent Plugin?
From Microsoft’s blog:
Agent Plugins 1.0 is an open standard that packages agent skills and MCP servers into one installable plugin that is governed independently of any single vendor.
And yeah, it is a lot of words to say what Google’s blog summarised even better 🤣
A plugin is a directory. That’s the whole idea, and the restraint is the point.
reports-plugin/ ├── plugin.json ├── skills/ │ └── summarize/ │ ├── SKILL.md │ ├── scripts/ │ └── references/ ├── mcp.json └── com.example.client/
There is an amazing blog post from Google that explains Agent Plugins in detail: Agent Plugins package your skills, tools, and more - I highly encourage you to take a look 😊
Great short video from OpenAI
Why are Agent Plugins important?
As somebody who deals with a lot of MCP servers, I can tell you that Agent Plugins are a game-changer 😊 They allow you to package your skills and tools into a single, installable plugins that can be used across different platforms and tools. The fact that VSCode and other tools natively support them, and the fact that it is yet another open standard; very much like MCPs themselves, is phenomenal 😊
It helps to package more complex tasks (one might even say workflows 😉) into a simple directory structure! How awesome is that? 😊
Google’s blog is so good I have to quote it yet again 😊 I hope they do not mind me borrowing their image either 😊
Not Every skill should be a Plugin
