Create Extension

Create Extension is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from Poorgramer-Zack/copilot-cli-things. It costs 56 tokens per session (1,764 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for building GitHub Copilot CLI extensions in JavaScript. An extension is a separate program that can add tools, respond to lifecycle events, and communicate with the CLI using JSON-RPC, a structured message format.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when creating, testing, inspecting, or troubleshooting Copilot CLI extensions. It covers extension.mjs files, hooks, tools, events, permission requests, session joining, and session events.
Why use it?
It explains the files, permissions, events, and setup needed to create or debug an extension. It also clarifies limits such as no interactive user interface or direct TypeScript support.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/poorgramer-zack/copilot-cli-things/create-extension
Any agent
npx skills add Poorgramer-Zack/copilot-cli-things --skill create-extension
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Poorgramer-Zack/copilot-cli-things

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for Create Extension

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/poorgramer-zack/copilot-cli-things/create-extension.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/poorgramer-zack/copilot-cli-things/create-extension)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/poorgramer-zack/copilot-cli-things/create-extension"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/poorgramer-zack/copilot-cli-things/create-extension.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 56 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,764 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00056 $0.01764
Opus 5 $0.00028 $0.00882
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00353
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00176

Measured 3d ago against content hash 2bd338cd6d94, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Create Extension scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 2 executable files (examples/extension-template.mjs, scripts/scaffold-extension.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Runs shell commandslowCapability

Expected in a hook, worth knowing in a rule or an instructions file.

- **Add imports** for any Node.js built-in modules (e.g., `child_process`, `fs`)
plugins/create-extension/skills/create-extension/SKILL.md · 195 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 195 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Create Copilot CLI Extension

Prerequisites

Extensions require experimental mode. Before creating or testing an extension, ensure it is active:

  • Launch flag: copilot --experimental
  • Slash command (persistent): /experimental inside a running session

Without experimental mode, extensions will not be discovered or loaded.

What is an Extension

An extension is a JavaScript (.mjs) child process that communicates with the Copilot CLI via JSON-RPC over stdio. Extensions can register custom tools, intercept lifecycle events via hooks, and subscribe to real-time session events.

Extensions can: register tools the agent calls, intercept/modify prompts and tool calls, inject hidden context, send messages programmatically, subscribe to events, control error handling.

Extensions cannot: render interactive UI, use console.log(), share tool names with other extensions, use TypeScript directly.

File Location

Project-level (per-repo):

<git-root>/.github/extensions/<name>/extension.mjs

User-level (global, all repos):

~/.copilot/extensions/<name>/extension.mjs

The file must be named extension.mjs. Only immediate subdirectories are scanned. Project extensions shadow user extensions on name collision.

Extension Lifecycle

  1. Discovery — CLI scans extension directories for subdirectories containing extension.mjs
  2. Launch — Each extension is forked as a child process with the SDK module resolver pre-configured
  3. Connection — Extension calls joinSession() to establish JSON-RPC over stdio
  4. Registration — Tools and hooks from session options are registered with the CLI
  5. Active — Extension responds to tool calls, hooks fire on events, session APIs are available
  6. Reload — Extensions are stopped and re-launched on /clear, extensions_reload(), or session replacement
  7. Shutdown — On CLI exit: SIGTERM, then SIGKILL after 5 seconds

Read the full file on GitHub · 195 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 195 lines · 56 tokens per session scan A 2bd338cd6d94

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Create Extension is a skill published in the GitHub repository Poorgramer-Zack/copilot-cli-things (2 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 56 tokens to every session and 1,764 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (runs shell commands). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

speckit-init

Scaffold a Spec Kit (spec-driven development) project for GitHub Copilot by running specify init --integration copilot --integration-options="--skills". USE FOR: starting a new spec-kit project, bootstrapping spec-driven development in an existing repo, installing spec-kit templates/scripts/commands for Copilot. DO…

github/spec-kit-copilot · 113 tokens

speckit-bundle

Discover, install, and author Spec Kit bundles via specify bundle. USE FOR: searching/showing/listing bundles, installing/updating/removing a bundle (a curated set of extensions/presets/integrations/workflows), validating a bundle manifest, building a distributable bundle artifact, initializing a project and…

github/spec-kit-copilot · 99 tokens

speckit-extension

Manage Spec Kit extensions via specify extension. USE FOR: installing/removing/updating spec-kit extensions, searching the extension catalog, showing extension info, enabling/disabling extensions, setting extension resolution priority, managing extension catalogs. DO NOT USE FOR: presets (use speckit-preset), bundles…

github/spec-kit-copilot · 83 tokens

speckit-preset

Manage Spec Kit presets via specify preset. USE FOR: installing/removing presets, searching the preset catalog, showing preset info, resolving which template a preset name maps to, enabling/disabling presets, setting preset resolution priority, managing preset catalogs. DO NOT USE FOR: extensions (use…

github/spec-kit-copilot · 88 tokens

speckit-workflow

Manage and run Spec Kit automation workflows via specify workflow. USE FOR: running a workflow by ID or local YAML, resuming a paused/failed run, checking run status, listing/installing/removing workflows, searching the workflow catalog, showing a workflow step graph. DO NOT USE FOR: extensions (use…

github/spec-kit-copilot · 93 tokens

speckit-check

Check the local environment for Spec Kit by running specify check (and specify version). USE FOR: verifying required tools are installed, diagnosing a broken spec-kit setup, reporting CLI version/feature capabilities. DO NOT USE FOR: installing or upgrading the CLI itself (use the speckit-self skill).

github/spec-kit-copilot · 69 tokens