Resolve name collisions for skills in subfolders

[drewmoore]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Product Feedback

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot CLI

Body

I use copilot in the context of a multi-repo workspace. It is not a monorepo, but rather includes many repos for APIs, microservices, etc. When building features, these typically span multiple repos, and it is very useful to be able to do this in a multi-repo context in order to coordinate changes.

I launch copilot the copilot cli using --add-dir to include each individual repo. These can have their own repo-specific skills. In the case of a naming collision, there seems to be no expected behavior. What I find is that one repo's skill is loaded but not the other.

Example:

•  copilot --add-dir ./server --add-dir ./client
• server and client repos both have .github/skills/manage-dependabot. These may differ due to repo-specific needs and their respective teams' workflows
• in copilot /manage-dependabot is only the skill for one of these repos

Suggestion:

Claude handles these collisions with namespacing. So based on the above example, the usage inside of claude would be:
/server:manage-dependabot
/client:manage-dependabot
This functionality in claude works quite well. It would be great if copilot would do this, too.

I recommend addressing this along with this feature request for including subfolders' claude skills: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/211469

[github-actions[bot]]

💬 Your Product Feedback Has Been Submitted 🎉

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights with us! Your feedback is invaluable as we build a better GitHub experience for all our users.

Here's what you can expect moving forward ⏩

• Your input will be carefully reviewed and cataloged by members of our product teams. 
  • Due to the high volume of submissions, we may not always be able to provide individual responses.
  • Rest assured, your feedback will help chart our course for product improvements.
• Other users may engage with your post, sharing their own perspectives or experiences. 
• GitHub staff may reach out for further clarification or insight. 
  • We may 'Answer' your discussion if there is a current solution, workaround, or roadmap/changelog post related to the feedback.

Where to look to see what's shipping 👀

• Read the Changelog for real-time updates on the latest GitHub features, enhancements, and calls for feedback.
• Explore our Product Roadmap, which details upcoming major releases and initiatives.

What you can do in the meantime 💻

• Upvote and comment on other user feedback Discussions that resonate with you.
• Add more information at any point! Useful details include: use cases, relevant labels, desired outcomes, and any accompanying screenshots.

As a member of the GitHub community, your participation is essential. While we can't promise that every suggestion will be implemented, we want to emphasize that your feedback is instrumental in guiding our decisions and priorities.

Thank you once again for your contribution to making GitHub even better! We're grateful for your ongoing support and collaboration in shaping the future of our platform. ⭐

[sanjayadanushka712]

This would be a useful improvement for developers working across multiple repositories. When --add-dir loads skills from several projects, two repositories can legitimately define a skill with the same name but different instructions. Silently making only one available makes it difficult to know which workflow Copilot will use and can lead to the wrong repository-specific process being followed.

I like the namespacing approach suggested here. Being able to invoke /server:manage-dependabot and /client:manage-dependabot would make the intended skill explicit, avoid naming conflicts, and preserve each team's independent workflow. Copilot could also show the repository or source path in /skills list so users can identify duplicate names and understand which version is selected by default.

This would fit well alongside [Discussion #211469](https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/211469) about discovering Claude skills in subfolders. GitHub's [Copilot CLI documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-cli-reference/cli-command-reference) already documents skill naming and priority behavior, so explicit namespacing would be a natural extension for multi-repository workspaces.