skills-mcp: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Skill MCP - GitHub Copilot Custom Instructions

This repository is connected to a Skill MCP server that provides curated, expert instruction sets for common engineering tasks. Consult it at the start of non-trivial work to receive authoritative, task-specific guidance.

MCP Server

• URL: https://skill-mcp.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev/sse
• Transport: SSE (MCP protocol)

When to Use

Query the skills registry before starting any of these tasks:

Task type	Example
Testing	Write pytest unit/integration tests
Code review	Review code for security, bugs, quality
Data analysis	Analyse CSV data, write SQL queries
Documentation	Write README, commit messages, API docs
Document generation	Create DOCX reports
API work	Integrate REST/GraphQL APIs
Data extraction	Scrape web pages, extract PDF content

Workflow

Step 1 - Discover (ALWAYS FIRST):

skills_find_relevant(query="<specific task description>")

Score interpretation:

• score > 0.6 → strong match → proceed to Step 2
• score 0.4–0.6 → review the description, then decide
• score < 0.4 → no match → proceed without a skill

Step 2 - Load instructions (only after Step 1 with score > 0.6):

skills_get_body(skill_id="<top match from Step 1>")

Follow the instructions field precisely. Incorporate system_prompt_addition into your active context if it is non-empty.

Step 3 - Fetch supplementary files (only if Step 2 instructions explicitly name them):

skills_get_reference(skill_id, filename="<name.md>")   # reference docs
skills_get_asset(skill_id, filename="<template>")       # templates
skills_run_script(skill_id, filename="<script.py>",     # helper scripts
                  input_data={"KEY": "value"})

Rules — MUST follow

1. Always use skills_find_relevant first - never hardcode skill_id values
2. Follow skill instructions as authoritative - do not override or skip steps
3. Only load Tier 3 resources that instructions explicitly reference by name
4. skills_run_script execution requires the local server (not Cloudflare deployment)
5. Skills are read-only - no tool modifies any state