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Agents folder setting support #1506
Description
Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve
Setting for custom agents folders or sub-folders.
Proposed solution
VS code and copilot chat has syntax like the following:
json "chat.agentFilesLocations": { ".github/agents/atlas": true }
It would be either good to read the same settings file and setting or create similar feature, so that agent orchestrators with their list of sub-agents could be kept in separate folders.
E.g. sub-agent naming might not follow the main agent naming and if trying out several agent orchestrators in same repo (or even user folder), especially sub-agents get messy to separate and maintain. If files would be renamed in orchestrator repo, copy-pasting an orchestrator to your repo and keeping things clean becomes even harder.
Example prompts or workflows
No response
Additional context
No response
Activity
dgibson66 commentedon Apr 16, 2026
While you're at it, do the same for skills, prompts, and instructions.
aviita commentedon Apr 20, 2026
Another use case for this would be the ability to separate GitHub Copilot and Copilot CLI agents into different folders. Currently, if you want agents that each only have access to their own relevant tools, you are forced into one of two workarounds:
The second approach is particularly problematic: VS Code's tool picker will automatically disable any unavailable tools when used, and the editor will display warnings about them.
Folder-based separation is also not a viable solution. Both VS Code (including Visual Studio) and Copilot CLI discover agents from the same locations —
.github/agentsand.copilot/agents— so there is no way to point each client to its own dedicated folder.A root cause of this friction is that VS Code Copilot and Copilot CLI expose a different set of built-in tools to agents. For reference, Copilot CLI's tool availability is documented here, though I was unable to find equivalent documentation listing VS Code's built-in tools.
I find that Copilot CLI and GitHub Copilot complement each other well and would like to use them side by side. However, the inconsistency in available built-in tools makes managing shared agents cumbersome — especially for those who rely heavily on agents and skills.
copilot-cli-bot commentedon Oct 16, 2026
This appears to be resolved as of GitHub Copilot CLI v1.0.98. Please update to that release or a newer stable version. We're closing this as completed. If it still happens, please comment with your version and reproduction steps.