New:<\/strong> Browse all skills, agents, and documentation at microsoft.github.io\/skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n github.com\/microsoft\/skills<\/a> is a collection of skills, prompts, agents, and MCP configurations that provide the activation context to specialize coding agents for Microsoft Foundry and Azure development.<\/p>\n The repo contains:<\/p>\n Browse and copy all of them at microsoft.github.io\/skills<\/a><\/p>\n Before loading skills into your agent, you need a mental model of what you are building, reducing your unknown-unknowns. Skills amplify your direction, they do not replace it.<\/p>\n My recommendation: do the basic hello world for each SDK you plan to use. For example, for Foundry IQ, walk through the agentic retrieval pipeline quickstart<\/a>. Understand the abstractions at a high level. Know what Cosmos DB containers are, how Azure AI Search indexes work, what a Foundry agent does. You need this picture to prompt and steer the agent effectively.<\/p>\n Beyond that high-level understanding? You probably will not be hand-coding the idiomatic patterns for how you consume these services. The model already has these patterns encoded. Skills surface them. You bring the architecture and intent. The agent brings the implementation details that are already latent in its weights.<\/p>\n Do not load all skills at once.<\/strong> Context rot occurs when your agent’s context window gets cluttered with irrelevant information, degrading output quality.<\/p>\n Loading everything will:<\/p>\n Only copy the specific skills essential for your current project.<\/strong> High signal-to-noise ratio is everything.<\/p>\n The same principle applies to MCP servers. Do not enable every server in your config. Too many tools create the same dilution problem. Pick the servers relevant to your current task.<\/p>\n The easiest way to add skills is through skills.sh<\/a>:<\/p>\n You can also browse and install individual skills from skillsmp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Browse available skills and copy relevant ones to your project:<\/p>\n Or use symlinks. For multi-project setups:<\/p>\n For sharing skills across different coding agents in the same repo:<\/p>\n GitHub Copilot:<\/strong> Skills are auto-discovered from Claude Code:<\/strong> Reference GitHub Copilot CLI:<\/strong> Works with the same skill structure<\/p>\n Copy the MCP configuration to your project:<\/p>\n Then remove the servers you do not need. This gives your agent access to:<\/p>\n For real-time Foundry documentation access, add the Context7 MCP server or use directly:<\/p>\n Context7 URL:<\/strong> context7.com\/llmstxt\/microsoft_github_io_skills_llms-full_txt<\/a><\/p>\n A GitHub workflow runs daily to sync the latest Foundry documentation updates automatically.<\/p>\n 126 skills total<\/strong> \u2014 5 core + 121 language-specific (Python, .NET, TypeScript, Java).<\/p>\n Browse all skills with install commands at microsoft.github.io\/skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n Language-agnostic tooling and infrastructure:<\/p>\nWhat’s in Agent Skills?<\/h2>\n
![\"agent](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/all-things-azure\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/83\/2026\/01\/agent-skills-image-1.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Systems Thinking First, Then Skills<\/h2>\n
Avoiding Context Rot<\/h2>\n
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Quick Start<\/h2>\n
Option 1: Install via skills.sh<\/h3>\n
npx skills add microsoft\/skills\r\n<\/pre>\n
Option 2: Copy Only the Skills You Need<\/h3>\n
# Clone the repo\r\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/skills.git\r\n\r\n# Copy specific skills to your project\r\ncp -r skills\/.github\/skills\/cosmos-db-python-skill your-project\/.github\/skills\/\r\ncp -r skills\/.github\/skills\/foundry-iq-python your-project\/.github\/skills\/\r\n<\/pre>\n
# macOS\/Linux\r\nln -s \/path\/to\/skills\/.github\/skills\/mcp-builder \/path\/to\/your-project\/.github\/skills\/mcp-builder\r\n\r\n# Windows (PowerShell as Admin)\r\nNew-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path \".github\\skills\\mcp-builder\" -Target \"C:\\skills\\.github\\skills\\mcp-builder\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
# Symlink to multiple agent config directories\r\nln -s ..\/.github\/skills .opencode\/skills\r\nln -s ..\/.github\/skills .claude\/skills\r\n<\/pre>\n
Configure Your Agent<\/h3>\n
.github\/skills\/<\/code><\/p>\nSKILL.md<\/code> files in your project instructions or CLAUDE.md<\/code><\/p>\nAdd MCP Servers<\/h3>\n
cp skills\/.vscode\/mcp.json your-project\/.vscode\/\r\n<\/pre>\n
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(Optional) Use Context7 for Foundry Docs<\/h3>\n
Available Skills<\/h2>\n
Core Skills<\/h3>\n