load-workspace-skills-at-session-initialization

Workspace Skills Loading at Session Initialization

When implementing or modifying Copilot session initialization, MUST automatically load workspace skills from .github/skills/ directory.

Loading Behavior:

• •Load all subdirectories containing SKILL.md files at session creation
• •Parse SKILL.md content and make available to AI prompts throughout session lifecycle

DO:

• •Silently skip when .github/skills/ directory is missing
• •Silently skip when .github/skills/ directory is empty
• •Display list of loaded skills when valid SKILL.md files are found
• •Require name and description fields in SKILL.md YAML frontmatter
• •Skip malformed SKILL.md files with a warning message (missing required fields, invalid YAML)
• •Allow other valid skills to load even when individual skills fail
• •Show user feedback during initialization (✓ for success, ⚠ for warnings)

DON'T:

• •Block session startup due to skill loading failures
• •Throw exceptions for missing or empty skills directory
• •Require session restart notification for skill changes (document this limitation instead)
• •Load skills from directories without SKILL.md files

User Feedback Format:

Loading workspace skills:
  ✓ authentication/SKILL.md
  ✓ database/SKILL.md
  ⚠ api-design/SKILL.md - Missing required 'description' field

Rationale: Skills must be consistently available during specification, implementation, and validation phases to guide AI-generated implementations with architectural context from processed ADRs.