GitHub walks beginners through customizing GitHub Copilot CLI using instructions, skills, and custom agents to better match team coding standards, automate pull request tasks, and run specialized checks like accessibility reviews.

How to use agents, skills, and instructions in Copilot CLI (beginner tutorial)

In episode 6 of the GitHub Copilot CLI for beginners series, GitHub shows how to customize Copilot CLI so it better follows your team’s conventions.

What this episode covers

Instructions

• Set up instructions that guide Copilot toward your team’s preferred coding standards.
• Generate project-level instructions so behavior stays consistent across a repo.

Skills

• Configure skills that let an agent perform repeatable tasks.
• Use agent skills to help automate pull request workflows.

Custom agents

• Create custom agents to run more specialized tasks.
• Example mentioned: running an accessibility review as a focused agent task.

Links

• GitHub Copilot CLI for Beginners repo: https://github.com/github/copilot-cli-for-beginners?utm_source=youtube-cli-beginners-series-episode6-repo-cta&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=copilot-cli-ga-phase-two-2026

Source tags/hashtags

• #GitHubCopilot
• #CopilotCLI
• #AI