Agentic skills¶
The DCC C Compiler repo ships a project-scoped agentic skill in
.github/skills/dcc-cpm-z80. A skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md (plus
optional references/) that packages domain knowledge. This one covers the
language, runtime, and toolchain rules for the DCC C Compiler.
An agent that supports skills reads SKILL.md on demand when your task matches
the skill's description, so it gets guidance for the DCC C Compiler without you pasting it
into every prompt.
Invoking the skill in VS Code¶
With GitHub Copilot in VS Code (agent mode), the skill is picked up when you open the DCC C Compiler repo. The agent loads it when your request falls within the skill's scope, such as source for the DCC C Compiler, DCCRTL, or ntvcm. You can also request it explicitly:
use the dcc-cpm-z80 skill to build and test foo.c
Using the skill from the GitHub Copilot CLI¶
The GitHub Copilot CLI discovers project skills from the repo you launch it in, plus any personal skills in your home-directory roots. From the repo root, start a session:
copilot
Then ask something within the skill's scope, for example: "build and run sieve.c with the DCC C Compiler".
Making the skill available system-wide¶
The copy in the DCC C Compiler repo only applies while you work inside that repo. To use
the skill from other projects, copy it to a personal skills root. The DCC C Compiler tools
and DCCRTL.MAC must still be on your PATH; see
Setting up the toolchain.
Copy the skill folder into one personal skills root, for example
~/.agents/skills/:
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:USERPROFILE.agents\skills" | Out-Null Copy-Item -Recurse ".github\skills\dcc-cpm-z80" "$env:USERPROFILE.agents\skills\"
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills cp -R .github/skills/dcc-cpm-z80 ~/.agents/skills/
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills cp -R .github/skills/dcc-cpm-z80 ~/.agents/skills/
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills cp -R .github/skills/dcc-cpm-z80 ~/.agents/skills/
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$env:USERPROFILE.agents\skills" | Out-Null Copy-Item -Recurse ".github\skills\dcc-cpm-z80" "$env:USERPROFILE.agents\skills\"
The repo copy and the personal copy are independent files, so re-copy after editing either one to keep them in sync.