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Spec Kit for GitHub Copilot

Copilot-native integrations for Spec Kit across GitHub Copilot CLI, the Copilot App, and VS Code.

This repository hosts Copilot-specific integrations and Spec Kit components tailored for Copilot: CLI skills, App canvases, and future plugins, hooks, or workflow surfaces. Spec Kit remains agent-agnostic; this companion repository provides the first-class Copilot experience around it.

Status: active development.

Background

Spec Kit provides the specify CLI and agent-independent foundations for Spec-Driven Development. This repository packages the integrations that are specifically useful to Copilot users without adding Copilot-only behavior to the core Spec Kit project.

Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md to get started, and open issues for the current roadmap.

Plugins

Plugin Version Surface Purpose
spec-kit-copilot 0.15.0 Copilot CLI and App agent Core skills that teach Copilot how to run specify
spec-kit-copilot-assess 0.1.0 Copilot App canvas Optional visual dashboard for the Spec Kit assess extension
spec-kit-copilot-bugfix 0.1.0 Copilot App canvas Optional visual dashboard for the Spec Kit bug extension
spec-kit-copilot-sdd 0.1.0 Copilot App canvas Optional visual dashboard for the core spec-driven development workflow

The plugins are independently installable and versioned. Install the core skills, the assessment canvas, the bug fix canvas, the spec-driven development canvas, or any combination.

Core skills plugin

spec-kit-copilot gives Copilot focused skills—one per specify command group—so the agent knows when and how to drive the CLI on your behalf.

Skill Wraps Purpose
speckit-cli-setup install / specify --version Detect and install the specify CLI the other skills depend on
speckit-init specify init Scaffold a new Copilot spec-driven project (or --here)
speckit-check specify check, specify version Verify tools, report version/features
speckit-extension specify extension … Install/update/search spec-kit extensions (+ catalogs)
speckit-preset specify preset … Install/search/resolve presets (+ catalogs)
speckit-bundle specify bundle … Discover, install, update, and author bundles (+ catalogs)
speckit-workflow specify workflow … Run/resume/inspect automation workflows (+ catalogs)
speckit-workflow-step specify workflow step … Manage workflow step types (+ catalogs)
speckit-self specify self … Check for and apply CLI upgrades

Each skill is a SKILL.md (YAML frontmatter + Markdown body). The description field tells Copilot when to load the skill; the body documents the exact specify sub-commands, options, and usage notes. The plugin is described by the plugin.json manifest at the repository root.

Canvases

Optional Copilot App canvas plugins render a side-panel dashboard for a Spec Kit workflow. Each has its own plugin manifest and release cadence, is not enabled by installing the core skills, and rides the experimental canvas SDK. See each canvas's own README for full details.

Canvas Plugin What it does
assess-canvas spec-kit-copilot-assess Dashboard for the optional assess extension — the intake → research → define → shape → decide funnel.
bugfix-canvas spec-kit-copilot-bugfix Dashboard for the optional bug extension — the assess → fix → test triage pipeline.
sdd-canvas spec-kit-copilot-sdd Dashboard for the core spec-driven workflow — constitution → specify → clarify → plan → tasks → analyze → checklist → implement.

Requirements

  • GitHub Copilot CLI

  • Copilot CLI 1.0.71 or later when installing spec-kit-copilot-assess

  • The Spec Kit specify CLI on your PATH:

    uv tool install specify-cli      # or: pipx install specify-cli
specify --version

Versioning: each plugin has an independent version and is not pinned to a specific Specify CLI version. The core plugin targets the latest specify published on PyPI (package specify-cli), with a minimum floor of >= 0.11 for the bundle / workflow step skills. Install or upgrade with uv tool install specify-cli / uv tool upgrade specify-cli (or the pipx equivalents), or specify self upgrade. Each plugin's own version is independent of the CLI version.

Installation

Via marketplace (recommended)

This repository ships a marketplace manifest at .github/plugin/marketplace.json. Register the marketplace, then install any combination of the plugins:

copilot plugin marketplace add OWNER/spec-kit-copilot
copilot plugin install spec-kit-copilot@spec-kit-marketplace
copilot plugin install spec-kit-copilot-assess@spec-kit-marketplace
copilot plugin install spec-kit-copilot-bugfix@spec-kit-marketplace
copilot plugin install spec-kit-copilot-sdd@spec-kit-marketplace

Local development loading

Load any of the plugins directly from a checkout while iterating:

copilot --plugin-dir . plugin list
copilot --plugin-dir plugins/spec-kit-copilot-assess plugin list
copilot --plugin-dir plugins/spec-kit-copilot-bugfix plugin list
copilot --plugin-dir plugins/spec-kit-copilot-sdd plugin list

Verify it loaded:

copilot plugin list
# or, inside an interactive session:
/skills list

For a persistent branch install, use OWNER/REPO for the core plugin or OWNER/REPO:plugins/spec-kit-copilot-assess for the canvas plugin.

Uninstall with the plugin's name (from plugin.json), not its path:

copilot plugin uninstall spec-kit-copilot
copilot plugin uninstall spec-kit-copilot-assess
copilot plugin uninstall spec-kit-copilot-bugfix
copilot plugin uninstall spec-kit-copilot-sdd

Usage

Just talk to Copilot in natural language; it selects the matching skill and runs the right specify command. For example:

  • "Initialize a spec-kit project here for Copilot" → speckit-init
  • "Check my spec-kit environment" → speckit-check
  • "Add the git extension" → speckit-extension
  • "Run the taskstoissues workflow" → speckit-workflow
  • "Install the platform-starter bundle" → speckit-bundle
  • "Is there a newer specify release?" → speckit-self

Opening a canvas dashboard

The Assessment canvas, Bug fix canvas, and Spec-driven development canvas plugins are canvas extensions: they render in the GitHub Copilot app side panel, not the terminal CLI. Installing one only registers its canvas — nothing opens automatically. To open a dashboard, ask Copilot, e.g. "Open the Idea Assessment pipeline", "Open the Bug Fix Pipeline", or "Open Spec-Driven Development". The agent opens the matching canvas in a side panel; from there you can click its buttons or ask the agent to drive the stages. There is no slash command or menu entry. See each plugin's README for details.

Walkthroughs

Note

Community walkthroughs are independently created and maintained by their respective authors. Review their content before following along and use at your own discretion.

See this plugin driving Spec-Driven Development end to end with this community-contributed walkthrough:

  • Issue-to-implementation with the assess extension — Takes a raw GitHub issue from idea to shipped change entirely through GitHub Copilot CLI and this plugin: first the Idea Assessment Pipeline (the assess extension — intake → research → define → shape → decide) turns the issue into a scored go/no-go decision, then Spec-Driven Development (specify → plan → tasks → implement) delivers the change. Every step documents the exact prompt entered into Copilot.

Layout

spec-kit-copilot/
├── plugin.json              # Core skills plugin manifest
├── README.md
├── .github/plugin/
│   └── marketplace.json     # Marketplace manifest (for distribution)
├── plugins/
│   ├── spec-kit-copilot-assess/
│   │   ├── plugin.json      # Assessment canvas plugin manifest
│   │   └── extensions/
│   │       └── assess-canvas/
│   ├── spec-kit-copilot-bugfix/
│   │   ├── plugin.json      # Bug fix canvas plugin manifest
│   │   └── extensions/
│   │       └── bugfix-canvas/
│   └── spec-kit-copilot-sdd/
│       ├── plugin.json      # Spec-driven development canvas plugin manifest
│       └── extensions/
│           └── sdd-canvas/
└── skills/
    ├── speckit-cli-setup/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-init/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-check/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-extension/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-preset/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-bundle/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-workflow/SKILL.md
    ├── speckit-workflow-step/SKILL.md
    └── speckit-self/SKILL.md

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT open source license. Please refer to the LICENSE file for the full terms.

Maintainers

This project is maintained by GitHub staff. See .github/CODEOWNERS for the current owners.

Support

See SUPPORT.md for how to get help and file issues. Please also review the Code of Conduct and Security Policy.

Acknowledgement

Built on top of Spec Kit and its specify CLI. Thanks to the Spec Kit team and community.