VS Code Insiders now supports Agent Skills, the open protocol Anthropic released yesterday for packaging reusable AI workflows. The feature is in preview and requires enabling a settings flag, but it signals Microsoft's early commitment to a standard that could reshape how developers extend AI coding assistants.
Agent Skills aren't custom instructions. Custom instructions tell an AI how to style code or format responses. Skills are folders containing a SKILL.md file plus scripts, examples, and resources that an AI loads dynamically when relevant. The difference matters: you can package actual automation, not just guidelines.
Anthropic originally shipped Skills for Claude in October. On December 18, the company published the specification as an open standard at agentskills.io and moved it to an independent GitHub repository. Microsoft has already adopted Agent Skills within VS Code and GitHub, along with popular coding agents like Cursor, Goose, Amp, OpenCode, and more, according to Anthropic product manager Mahesh Murag. Developer Elias Judin reportedly found that OpenAI has quietly adopted structurally identical architecture in both ChatGPT and its Codex CLI tool with matching file naming conventions and directory structure.
The timing tracks with Anthropic's broader standards push. The company donated its Model Context Protocol to the Linux Foundation on December 9. Whether Agent Skills follows the same path remains an open question.
The Bottom Line: Skills work across VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and the Copilot coding agent, so a workflow you build once doesn't stay locked to one tool.
QUICK FACTS
- Feature status: Preview, VS Code Insiders only
- Setting to enable: chat.useAgentSkills
- Skill file format: SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter
- Supported locations: .github/skills/ or .claude/skills/
- Open standard spec: agentskills.io
- Adopters: VS Code, GitHub, Cursor, Amp, OpenCode, Goose, Letta
