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[bot] Add Critic Agent, new hook events, built-in skills, and MCP auth (CLI v1.0.15–v1.0.18) #35

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[bot] Add Critic Agent, new hook events, built-in skills, and MCP auth (CLI v1.0.15–v1.0.18) #35

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71 changes: 69 additions & 2 deletions README.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ For detailed documentation, see the [Further Reading](#further-reading) section
│ Running Parallel Auto-delegates work; /fleet for explicit │
│ Tasks & /fleet parallel execution via subagents │
│ Autopilot Mode Hands-off autonomous task completion (CLI) │
│ Critic Agent Dual-model plan & code review (experimental) │
│ Coding Agent Autonomous cloud agent — issues in, PRs out │
│ Agentic Workflows Automate repo tasks via GitHub Actions + AI │
│ Mission Control Dashboard to manage coding agents at scale │
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -94,6 +95,7 @@ For detailed documentation, see the [Further Reading](#further-reading) section
- [Agentic Features](#agentic-features)
- [Running Parallel Tasks](#running-parallel-tasks)
- [Autopilot Mode](#autopilot-mode)
- [Critic Agent](#critic-agent)
- [Copilot Coding Agent](#copilot-coding-agent)
- [Agentic Workflows](#agentic-workflows)
- [Mission Control](#mission-control)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -253,9 +255,12 @@ When creating or modifying database tables.

**Effect:** When Copilot detects a task related to migrations, it loads this skill automatically. Works across CLI, VS Code, and the coding agent.

> 💡 **Built-in skills:** The CLI ships with built-in skills out of the box — no files required. The first is `customizing-copilot-cloud-agents-environment`, a guide for setting up the [Copilot Coding Agent's environment](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/coding-agent/customizing-the-development-environment-for-copilot-coding-agent). More built-in skills will be added over time. Your own `.github/skills/` files work alongside built-in ones.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Scope** | Auto-loaded when the task domain matches |
| **Built-in skills** | Bundled with the CLI — no files required (added in v1.0.17) |
| **Difference from prompts** | Skills are auto-detected; prompts are manually invoked |

---
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -300,12 +305,24 @@ When creating or modifying database tables.
| "The issue says..." (you paste it) | Agent reads the issue via GitHub MCP server |
| "Upload to cloud storage" (you do it manually) | Agent calls cloud storage API through an MCP server |

#### MCP authentication & management (CLI)

| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| `/mcp auth` | Authenticate or re-authenticate an MCP OAuth server; supports account switching |
| `mcp.config.list` | List all persistent MCP server configurations (server RPC) |
| `mcp.config.add` | Add a persistent MCP server configuration (server RPC) |
| `mcp.config.update` | Update an existing MCP server configuration (server RPC) |
| `mcp.config.remove` | Remove a persistent MCP server configuration (server RPC) |

OAuth flows support HTTPS redirect URIs (via self-signed certificate fallback) and a device code flow (RFC 8628) as a fallback for headless and CI environments.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Scope** | Available to all agents in the session |
| **Discovery** | VS Code has a built-in MCP server gallery (search `@mcp` in Extensions) |
| **Security** | Servers run locally — your credentials stay on your machine |
| **OAuth / API keys** | MCP servers can request you to visit a URL for out-of-band auth flows (e.g. OAuth, API key entry) |
| **OAuth / API keys** | Use `/mcp auth` for OAuth flows; device code flow (RFC 8628) supported in headless/CI |

---

Expand All @@ -332,6 +349,12 @@ Custom scripts that run automatically at specific lifecycle events — like pre-
},
"startup": {
"prompt": "/compact Summarize recent changes in RecipeShare"
},
"postToolUseFailure": {
"command": "echo 'Tool ${tool} failed — check logs' >> .copilot/errors.log"
},
"notification": {
"command": "osascript -e 'display notification \"Copilot finished\" with title \"RecipeShare\"'"
}
}
}
Expand All @@ -346,6 +369,11 @@ Custom scripts that run automatically at specific lifecycle events — like pre-
| `post-edit` | After Copilot edits a file |
| `pre-commit` | Before a git commit |
| `startup` | When a CLI session starts — auto-submits a prompt or slash command |
| `preToolUse` | Before each tool call; return `permissionDecision: 'allow'` to auto-approve without prompting |
| `postToolUse` | After a **successful** tool call (does **not** fire on failures) |
| `postToolUseFailure` | After a **failed** tool call (new in v1.0.15) |
| `notification` | Asynchronously on shell completion, permission prompts, elicitation dialogs, and agent completion (new in v1.0.18) |
| `PermissionRequest` | When a tool requests permission — script can approve or deny programmatically (new in v1.0.16) |

**Config notes:**

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -599,10 +627,48 @@ Autopilot and `/fleet` are independent features that combine well. A common work
| **Where** | Copilot CLI only (GA as of v1.0, March 2026) |
| **Toggle** | Shift+Tab during a session, or `--autopilot` flag |
| **Cost** | Each autonomous continuation step uses premium requests |
| **Session export** | Use `/share html` to export the session as a self-contained interactive HTML file (added in v1.0.15) |
| **Docs** | [Autopilot mode](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/copilot-cli/autopilot) |

---

### Critic Agent

An automatic **dual-model review** step that uses a complementary model to check plans and complex implementations for errors before they're finalized.

> **When you need it:** You want an independent second opinion on a complex implementation — catching issues a single model might overlook because it produced the code in the first place.

- Automatically activates during **plan mode** and on complex multi-step implementations
- Uses a **different model** from the one that authored the code, so it brings a fresh perspective
- Surfaces contradictions, missed edge cases, and logical errors
- Currently **experimental** — available for Claude models (enable via the `experimental` CLI setting)

<details markdown>
<summary>How to enable the Critic Agent (experimental)</summary>

In `~/.copilot/settings.json`:

```jsonc
{
"experimental": {
"criticAgent": true
}
}
```

Once enabled, the CLI automatically invokes the Critic after generating a plan or complex implementation. You'll see a "Critic review" step appear in the timeline before Copilot proceeds.

</details>

| | |
|---|---|
| **Where** | Copilot CLI only |
| **Status** | Experimental — Claude models only (added in v1.0.18) |
| **Cost** | Uses an additional LLM call with a complementary model |
| **Difference from code review** | Critic runs _before_ code is finalized, not after a PR is opened |

---

### Copilot Coding Agent

GitHub's autonomous agent that picks up issues, creates branches, and opens PRs — **without a chat session**. It runs on GitHub's cloud infrastructure, not your machine.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -868,7 +934,7 @@ squad > /status

Key CLI commands: `squad init`, `squad status`, `squad triage` (auto-triage issues), `squad copilot` (add/remove @copilot), `squad doctor`, `squad nap` (context hygiene), `squad export`/`import`, `squad aspire` (observability dashboard).

#### What's new (v0.8.x)
#### What's new (v0.9.x)

- **SubSquads** — break large teams into focused sub-groups (renamed from workstreams)
- **Crash recovery** — sessions persist to disk; agents resume from checkpoint after failures
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -971,6 +1037,7 @@ Based on [lessons from 2,500+ repositories](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github
| **Plugins** | Bundled agent toolkits | `plugin.json` manifest | When sharing agent setups across repos |
| **Running Parallel Tasks / `/fleet`** | Auto-delegates or explicitly fans out work to subagents | *(runtime capability)* / `/fleet` slash command | When your request has multiple independent jobs |
| **Autopilot Mode** | Hands-off autonomous task completion | Copilot CLI (`--autopilot` / Shift+Tab) | When you want Copilot to work to completion without interaction |
| **Critic Agent** | Dual-model review of plans & implementations | Copilot CLI (experimental, `~/.copilot/settings.json`) | When you want an automatic second opinion before code is finalized |
| **Coding Agent** | Autonomous cloud agent | GitHub infrastructure | When you want async issue automation |
| **Agentic Workflows** | AI + GitHub Actions automation | GitHub Actions | When you want automated repo maintenance |
| **Mission Control** | Multi-agent dashboard | GitHub.com / VS Code | When managing agents at scale |
Expand Down