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Module 4 · SkillsVerified 2 Nov 2026

Skills

A skill is a folder of instructions, scripts and templates that Copilot loads only when the task calls for it.

What do you need?

Pick the closest situation

Pick the situation closest to yours.

release-notes skill

Click a highlighted line

.github/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md

---
---

name

Lowercase identifier that matches the folder name.

Skill builder

.github/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

.github/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md
---
name: release-notes
description: Draft release notes from merged PRs. Use when asked for a changelog.
---

# release-notes

1. Run scripts/list-prs.sh to get merged PRs.
2. Group by label and write the notes using templates/notes.md.
3. Show the result and ask before saving any file.
.github/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md
---
name: release-notes
description: Draft release notes from merged pull requests. Use when asked for a changelog or release summary.
---

# Release notes

1. Run `scripts/list-prs.sh <since-tag>` to list merged PRs.
2. Group them under Features, Fixes and Chores using their labels.
3. Write one plain-English line per PR, linking the number.
4. Show the draft. Do not write CHANGELOG.md until the user approves.
.github/skills/release-notes/scripts/list-prs.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
since="${1:?usage: list-prs.sh <since-tag>}"
date=$(git log -1 --format=%cI "$since")
gh pr list --state merged --search "merged:>$date" --json number,title,labels --limit 100

Keep skills small

Put the essentials in SKILL.md and move detail into files it links to, so Copilot loads only what it needs.