GitHub Copilot Custom Agents via .agent.md: Define Specialized AI Agents as Repository Files with Full Workspace Awareness, Tool Access, and MCP Connections

GitHub Docs·high signal

GitHub now supports defining custom Copilot agents as .agent.md files stored in repositories at .github/agents/CUSTOM-AGENT-NAME.md. Each file is a Markdown document with YAML frontmatter specifying prompts, tools, model selection, and MCP server connections. Agents get full workspace awareness and code understanding, appear in the agent picker for the entire team, and require no separate configuration service. This is the 'agents as code' pattern — version-controlled, team-shareable agent definitions that ship with the repo. Community-contributed agents are available in GitHub's awesome-copilot repository.