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Project Skills

Project skills describe knowledge that is only true for one application. They explain local domains, product flows, integration details, and exceptions to the organization-wide rules.

These files give Copilot the project-specific context it needs to generate code that fits the actual application instead of producing generic examples.

Example files:

project/.skills/domains/customer-management.md
project/.skills/domains/authentication.md
project/.skills/features/upload-flow.md
project/.skills/features/dashboard.md

Short content:

# project/.skills/domains/customer-management.md

Customers can have one or more contacts.
Archived customers remain visible in reports.
Customer status is controlled by the back office workflow.

Keep project skills inside the project repository. They should move with the code because they describe how that specific system works.

This improves production readiness because implementation details, domain behavior, and local constraints are reviewed and versioned with the application.

Example files:

project/
├── .skills/
│   ├── project/
│   │   ├── architecture.md
│   │   └── coding-standards.md
│   ├── domains/
│   │   └── customer-management.md
│   └── features/
│       └── upload-flow.md
└── src/

Short content:

# project/.skills/project/architecture.md

Feature code lives in `src/features`.
Shared UI lives in `src/components`.
Domain services must not import React components.

Most project skills should not be copied to other projects. Promote them to the organization skills repository only when the rule becomes useful across multiple systems.

Example files:

project/.skills/features/room-id-upload-flow.md
project/.skills/integrations/payment-provider.md
engineering-skills/workflows/upload-flow.md

Short content:

# project/.skills/features/room-id-upload-flow.md

Users upload a room photo before entering measurements.
The upload step stores the image and returns a room id.
Retry failed uploads before creating a new room.

Mini exercise​

Apply Project Skills to a feature or workflow you know. In ten minutes:

  1. Describe the current approach in one sentence.
  2. Identify one ambiguity, coupling risk, or missing constraint.
  3. Write one concrete rule or artifact that would improve predictability.
  4. Define how a reviewer or automated check could validate the improvement.

Compare your result with a teammate and revise the rule if two people could interpret it differently.

Example​

For Project Skills, consider an accessibility-testing skill:

  • Current approach: The same guidance exists in user prompts, repository notes, and local agent configuration.
  • Risk: Teams cannot tell which version is authoritative.
  • Concrete rule: Store reusable accessibility policy at organization level, project exceptions in the repository, and runtime invocation details with the agent.
  • Validation: Trace one generated component to the exact policy, project rule, and runtime instruction it used.