From one-off prompts to workflows: How to use custom agents in GitHub Copilot CLI

Developers work across many surfaces like the CLI, IDE, and GitHub. The terminal is often where they turn to move fast, automate tasks, or work directly with systems and scripts. Tools like the GitHub Copilot CLI already make this easier. You can generate commands, debug issues, and move quicker without leaving the terminal. However, like any environment, the CLI can still accumulate friction: re-running the same commands, re-explaining context, or translating logs for your team into something they can act on. These small steps add up, especially when every team’s stack and standards are a little different. But what if your terminal didn’t just run commands, it understood your stack, your tools, and your team’s standards? That’s where custom agents come in. Instead of starting from scratch each time, you can encode your team’s context into reusable workflows that go beyond one-off prompts. With custom agents in the CLI, you can turn repeated tasks and patterns into consistent, reviewable workflows that fit naturally alongside your other tools, further tailoring GitHub Copilot CLI with expertise for specific development tasks. What are custom agents? A custom agent is a Copilot agent that can be defined using a Markdown file. Instead of relying on generic behavior, you describe how the agent should operate, what tools it can use, what standards it should follow, and what outputs it should produce. The result: its behavior is consistent wherever it runs. Each coding agent you create can act as a specialized agent tailored for a specific task. For example, a generic coding agent might suggest how to clean up your code. But a custom agent can apply your formatting rules, tooling, accessibility standards, review requirements, and safety requirements every time it runs. Custom agents are defined using agent profiles, or files that live directly in your repository. Written in Markdown, these agent profiles let you specify: The agent’s role and area of expertise Which tools