Copilot Tools Pack

A portable pack of global GitHub Copilot skills: /tools, /history, /snapshot, and /teach-me.

Cross-platform — works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What's inside

copilot.tools/
├── _list_sessions.js            # Internal: reads Copilot session database
├── package.json                 # npm package config
├── tools-install.js             # Cross-platform installer (copies skills globally)
├── skills/
│   ├── history/SKILL.md         # /history — lists Copilot chat sessions
│   ├── snapshot/SKILL.md        # /snapshot — pre-edit file backups
│   ├── teach-me/SKILL.md        # /teach-me — interactive code quiz
│   └── tools/tools-skill/SKILL.md  # /tools — lists available tools
├── README.md                    # This file
└── CHANGELOG.md                 # Version history

Install

Global Installation

1. Open a terminal (Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, macOS Terminal, or Linux shell).
2. Run:

   npm install -g copilot.tools

Verify Installation

Skills are automatically copied to ~/.copilot/skills/ and will be auto-discovered by GitHub Copilot:

• Windows: C:\Users\<username>\.copilot\skills\
• macOS/Linux: ~/.copilot/skills/

To verify, check that the directory exists and contains 4 subdirectories: history, snapshot, teach-me, tools.

How to use

After installation:

1. Open VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension installed.
2. Open the Copilot Chat panel (Ctrl+Shift+I / Cmd+Shift+I).
3. Type / to see available skills.
4. Select a skill or type the full command:
   • /tools — List all available tools
   • /history — Show Copilot chat session history with tokens and costs
   • /snapshot — Toggle automatic pre-edit file backups
   • /teach-me — Start an interactive code quiz

Looking for Copilot version

This tool pack is also available for Codewhale. Find it at: https://www.npmjs.com/package/codewhale.history

Skills Reference

/tools

Lists every tool available in the current Copilot session, grouped by category (File I/O, Search, Git, Sub-agents, Shell, Planning, etc.), with a brief description of what each tool does. Read-only — no files touched.

/tools help or /tools readme — Displays the full tools documentation.

/history

Lists all Copilot chat sessions with metadata:

• Date/time — When the session was created
• Title — Session title or first message
• Messages — Message count in that session
• Tokens — Tokens consumed (with thousands separators)
• Cost — Estimated session cost in USD
• Model — Which LLM was used

A TOTAL row summarizes across all sessions: total count, total messages, total tokens, and total cost.

Note: Session data is read from Copilot's SQLite database (session-store.db), which persists across VS Code restarts. Token counts and costs reflect actual Copilot API usage.

/snapshot

Toggle automatic pre-edit file backups:

• /snapshot on — Enable backups
• /snapshot off — Disable backups
• /snapshot status — Show current status

Why use this: Snapshot is designed for folders that are not Git repos — especially folders with Office documents (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx, .pdf) that Copilot is about to edit. Before every modification, snapshot saves a timestamped copy into _snapshots/ so you can always recover the pre-AI version:

report.docx  →  _snapshots/report.2026-06-21_14-30-00.docx

If the workspace already has a .git directory, snapshot politely declines — Git already has your back.

/teach-me

An interactive code-teaching quiz that randomly selects real snippets from your current project. Two independent dimensions across five difficulty levels:

Response mode (how you answer):

• Passive (default) — Describe your answer in the chat.
• Interactive (teach me interactive) — Edit the actual file, then say done.

Content theme (what it's about):

• Standard (default) — Code comprehension or line reconstruction.
• SOLID (teach me solid) — Anti-pattern detection and design restoration.
• Spec (teach me spec) — Spec-to-code traceability using office docs as source.
• BA-Gates (teach me ba) — BA documentation quality analysis (ambiguity, AC completeness, edge case coverage).

| Trigger | Response | Theme | What happens | |---------|----------|-------|-------------| | teach me | passive | standard | Present code; you explain it | | teach me interactive | interactive | standard | Lines removed; you restore them | | teach me solid | passive | solid | Degraded code; you describe fixes | | teach me solid interactive | interactive | solid | Degraded code; you edit to fix it | | teach me spec | passive | spec | Two directions: spec→code (show requirement, you find the code) or code→spec (show code, you name the requirement) | | teach me spec interactive | interactive | spec | Two directions: spec→code (edit code to satisfy a spec) or code→spec (edit spec to match the code) | | teach me ba | passive | ba-gates | BA doc fragment; you identify quality gate violations | | teach me ba interactive | interactive | ba-gates | BA doc with issues; you edit to fix them |

Triggers: teach me · quiz me · test my knowledge · code quiz · drill me

Modifiers (combine freely):

| Modifier | Example | What it does | |----------|---------|-------------| | Language | teach me python | Restrict to Python, TypeScript, Rust, Go, Java… | | Level | teach me level 3 or teach me l3 | Set difficulty 1–5 (default: 3) | | Response | teach me interactive | Edit the file instead of describing | | Theme | teach me solid | Anti-pattern detection — fix degraded design | | Theme | teach me spec | Spec↔code traceability — either direction (show spec, find the code; or show code, name the requirement) | | Theme | teach me ba | BA documentation quality analysis | | Scope | teach me services/ | Narrow to a specific file or folder | | Concept | teach me decorators | Target: decorators, async, generators, context managers, comprehensions, error handling, type hints, threading |

Difficulty levels:

| Level | Line range | What you'll face | |-------|-----------|------------------| | 1 | 5–15 | Straight-line logic, if/else, basic function calls | | 2 | 8–20 | Loops, list/dict operations, simple try/except | | 3 | 12–30 | Comprehensions, decorators, with statements, multiple branches | | 4 | 18–45 | Generators, async/await, descriptors, threading, closures | | 5 | 25–55 | Metaclasses, complex async patterns, multi-threading, architectural glue |

Mid-round commands: hint (get a nudge) · skip (see the answer) · next (draw a new snippet) · level N · easier · harder · interactive · passive · solid · spec · ba · done (verify work) · stop

At the end you get a session summary: rounds completed, mode, files covered, what you're strong on, what to review, and a suggested next level.

In SOLID theme: the model rewrites code with deliberate anti-patterns (STUPID, WET, god objects, tight coupling), presents the degraded code, and you restore good design. Files are always restored with git checkout after each round.

In Spec theme: the model scans your office documents (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) and source code, then quizzes you on the correlation between them. Each round randomly picks one direction — either "what code implements this spec?" or "what spec does this code satisfy?" — testing whether you truly understand how requirements map to implementation. In interactive mode, you edit the code to satisfy the spec; in passive mode, you describe the link.

In BA-Gates theme: the model runs a two-pass analysis over your BA documentation files (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx, .md, .feature, .txt). Pass 1 uses regex triage to flag fragments against three quality gates — Ambiguity (unmeasurable terms, passive states), Acceptance Criteria Completeness (missing structure, unverifiable outcomes), and Edge Case Coverage (missing negative scenarios, error states). Pass 2 runs an LLM interpretation per fragment at round time to generate quiz material and concrete improvement options. You identify which gates a fragment triggers and describe the developer impact. On skip or strike-3, the model presents 2–3 domain-specific rewrites per issue with a best-fit recommendation.

Requirements

• Node.js (version 14 or later) — for the installer and session history lookup
• VS Code (latest version)
• GitHub Copilot extension — installed and authenticated
• LLM credits/API key — configured in your Copilot settings (enterprise or personal)

Troubleshooting

Skills not showing up in Copilot

1. Verify installation: Check that ~/.copilot/skills/ exists with 4 subdirectories.
2. Restart VS Code completely (not just the Copilot chat panel).
3. In Copilot chat, type / to see if skills appear in autocomplete.

/history shows "No sessions found"

This is normal for a fresh Copilot install. Start a new chat session in Copilot, then run /history again — it will show the new session.

/teach-me can't find code in my project

Make sure your project files are open in the VS Code workspace. The quiz needs access to the actual code files to select snippets.

Contact & License

Developer: species8472

Copyright © 2026 Celestial Consulting Ltd. Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.