Copilot

Copilot is a first-class Observal harness integration. Observal can install GitHub Copilot agents, configure MCP servers, expose skills, and bridge telemetry hooks.

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Overview

Copilot agent profiles are Markdown files stored in .github/agents/.

Copilot currently supports project installation scope only. MCP servers, hooks, skills, and agent profiles are managed through the project configuration.

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Supported capabilities

Capability	Support
Agent profiles	Project scope
Hook bridge	Supported
MCP servers	.vscode/mcp.json
Skills	.github/skills/{name}/SKILL.md
Session parsing	Built-in copilot-cli session parser
Default scope	Project

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Setup

1. Install the Observal CLI

uv tool install observal-cli
# or: pipx install observal-cli

2. Authenticate

observal auth login

This writes credentials to ~/.observal/config.json.

3. Pull an agent into Copilot

observal agent pull <agent-name> --harness copilot

By default, the agent is written to:

.github/agents/{name}.agent.md

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Config paths

Purpose	Project scope
Agent profile	.github/agents/{name}.agent.md
MCP config	.vscode/mcp.json
Skills	.github/skills/{name}/SKILL.md
Hook config	.github/hooks/{name}.json

Copilot MCP configuration uses the servers key.

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Hook spec

Event map

Observal event	Copilot event
SessionStart	SessionStart
UserPromptSubmit	UserPromptSubmit
PreToolUse	PreToolUse
PostToolUse	PostToolUse
Stop	Stop

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Session parsing and delivery

Copilot uses the built-in copilot-cli server parser while retaining separate source adapters for VS Code Copilot and Copilot CLI. VS Code hook events are durably materialized as JSONL-compatible source records; Copilot CLI discovers its native events.jsonl sessions.

Both adapters route through the shared spool-first delivery engine. Hook execution writes to the durable outbox and defers network work, retries keep stable source indexes, and cursors advance only after contiguous server acknowledgement. Recovery uses the authenticated server checkpoint. Finalization audits the complete source hash and rewinds/replays a mismatched range.

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Caveats

Only project scope is supported. Agents are installed into .github/agents/.

Configuration is split across project directories. MCP servers are stored in .vscode/mcp.json, while hooks and skills live under .github/.

Rules are not supported. Copilot supports agent profiles, MCP servers, skills, and hooks, but does not expose a rules configuration.