Microsoft Copilot: use a skill by pasting it into a chat

Not yet. Pasting text at the start of a chat is how any chat app can be given instructions, but Trilly hasn't tried it here. We'll say so on this page when we have.

Trilly doesn't know whether Copilot carries a pasted skill over to the next chat, so paste it again each time. Microsoft's privacy page for the earlier Copilot app says Copilot can save key details you share when personalisation is turned on, and that you can turn it off. Microsoft also describes Notebooks, which take their own instructions (Microsoft names Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro plans). Trilly hasn't tried a skill in either, so we can't say how well it would work.

Check that the whole of it went in before you ask. Trilly hasn't found a limit for one message on Microsoft's pages.

It may work less well. A skill's SKILL.md holds its instructions, but some skills come with extra files in a references folder that pasting the one file leaves out. Some skills also keep a step on Trilly. A copy has a note where that step should be, and Copilot can't fetch it, so the skill won't work whole.

This guide is for Copilot with a personal Microsoft account. With a work or school account you are in Microsoft 365 Copilot, which has its own guide. GitHub Copilot is the coding tool.