Installing HVE Core

HVE Core is a library of agents, skills, and instructions for GitHub Copilot. It targets the Copilot agent harness, which VS Code uses for chat sessions by default and which also runs Copilot CLI. Pick one install route, check that HVE Core loaded, and add .copilot-tracking/ to your project's .gitignore.

Use the Copilot Harness

HVE Core supports only the Copilot harness. VS Code's Local harness doesn't load the skills that HVE Core agents preload through their skills: frontmatter, so the agents can't run there as written. Earlier releases worked in Local, which makes this a breaking change for anyone still using it.

VS Code shows a session's harness at the start of its chat title. To switch, start a new chat and select Copilot in the Session Target control before you send the first prompt. Choose an agent harness covers the options.

Choose an Install Route

Route	What you get	Choose it when
Plugin ⭐	Every agent, skill, and instruction, following `main`	You want the full set in VS Code or Copilot CLI
Repository default	The plugin offered to everyone who opens a repository	Your team wants one setup without copying files
Repository copy	Copies of every component, owned by your repository	You customize HVE Core in your repository
VS Code extension	Agents and skills from the VS Code Marketplace	You manage editor tools through the Marketplace
A clone	A pinned or editable copy, loaded as a plugin or from settings	You pin a version, contribute, or test a branch

⭐ Most people should start with the plugin.

Install the Plugin

The hve-core plugin carries every HVE Core agent, skill, and instruction, plus canvases such as the RPI Workflow canvas. Its registration follows the main branch.

To install it in VS Code:

Run Chat: Open Customizations from the Command Palette to open the Agent Customizations editor.
Select Browse, open the source menu, and select Configure Marketplaces.
Select Add Marketplace and enter microsoft/hve-core.
Return to Browse, choose the hve-core marketplace from the source menu, and install the hve-core plugin. The first install from a new marketplace asks you to trust it.

If your editor has no Browse page, select Plugins and then Browse Marketplace instead. In a Copilot chat session, these two commands do the same thing:

/plugin marketplace add microsoft/hve-core
/plugin install hve-core@hve-core

In Copilot CLI, run:

copilot plugin marketplace add microsoft/hve-core
copilot plugin install hve-core@hve-core

VS Code also picks up plugins that Copilot CLI installs. Copilot Plugin covers both clients in more detail.

Update the Plugin

In VS Code, select Check for and Apply Updates on the Plugins page, or run Chat: Update Plugins. In Copilot CLI, refresh the marketplace before you update the plugin:

copilot plugin marketplace update hve-core
copilot plugin update hve-core@hve-core

If you registered a release-channel or tag ref earlier, follow Replace an Earlier Registration.

Offer the Plugin to Your Team

Commit .github/copilot/settings.json to a repository to offer HVE Core to everyone who opens it with the Copilot harness:

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "hve-core": {
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "microsoft/hve-core"
      }
    }
  },
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "hve-core@hve-core": true
  }
}

The Copilot harness treats this file as the repository's plugin defaults. Each person can still turn the plugin off on the Plugins page, and enterprise-managed settings take precedence. The key under extraKnownMarketplaces must be hve-core because that is the marketplace's name.

Copy HVE Core Into Your Repository

Copilot finds agents, skills, and instructions in a project's .github/agents, .github/skills, and .github/instructions folders without any settings. If your repository should own its HVE Core files, copy them into those folders with the hve-core-installer skill, which ships with the plugin and the extension. Ask an agent to use it, and it walks you through four steps:

Clone or pin the HVE Core version to adopt.
Confirm that the installer copies every component declared by root plugin.json.
Review component kinds and collisions before anything is written.
Choose automatic source updates or a controlled pinned version.

The installer copies the full set because agents load skills and instructions by name, and a partial set can leave an agent without what it needs to start. An earlier install that recorded a smaller set keeps upgrading that set.

Agents, instructions, and complete skill directories keep their repository-relative paths, and the installer records the result in .hve-tracking.json (schema version 2). Once your repository has its copies, uninstall the plugin or extension so Copilot does not load HVE Core twice.

Use the VS Code Extension

The ise-hve-essentials.hve-core extension installs HVE Core from the VS Code Marketplace, with Stable and PreRelease channels. VS Code forwards the extension's agents and skills to Copilot sessions. The extension's instructions may not reach those sessions, and the extension has no canvases, so use the plugin when you need either. VS Code Extension has the install and update steps.

Work From a Clone

A clone holds a pinned or editable copy of HVE Core, and Copilot can load it in two ways.

For any folder that VS Code can read, install the clone's root folder as a plugin from source. In the Agent Customizations editor, select Plugins, select the add (+) button next to User or Workspace, and enter the folder path. Chat: Install Plugin from Source in the Command Palette does the same. HVE Core keeps plugin.json at its repository root, so this route loads the full set.

For a copy inside your project's checkout, such as a submodule or a git-ignored folder, you can instead list its folders in .github/copilot/settings.json:

{
  "agentDirectories": ["lib/hve-core/.github/agents"],
  "skillDirectories": ["lib/hve-core/.github/skills"],
  "instructionDirectories": ["lib/hve-core/.github/instructions"]
}

Each path must be a literal folder inside the checkout. Copilot rejects absolute paths, ~, environment variables, globs, and paths that leave the checkout, and it loads the folders only when the workspace folder is trusted. It finds agents and skills nested under each folder and inlines instructions that have no applyTo. Whether path-specific instructions load from these folders is not confirmed yet, so use the plugin route when you need them.

Where the copy lives	How Copilot loads it	Guide
A folder next to your project	Plugin from source	Peer Directory Clone
A submodule in your project	Repository settings	Git Submodule
A git-ignored folder in your project	Plugin from source or repository settings	Git-Ignored Folder
A host folder mounted into a container	Repository settings, when mounted inside the workspace	Mounted Directory
GitHub Codespaces	Repository default, or a clone inside the repository	GitHub Codespaces
A second folder in a multi-root workspace	Plugin from source	Multi-Root Workspace

Comparing Setup Methods puts every route side by side.

Use One Route at a Time

Copilot does not remove copies that arrive by different routes. If you install the plugin and the extension, or the plugin and a declared clone, each agent appears more than once in the subagent list. Keep one route and remove the others.

Earlier HVE Core guides set chat.agentFilesLocations, chat.instructionsFilesLocations, and chat.agentSkillsLocations in VS Code settings. Copilot CLI and the GitHub Copilot app ignore those settings, and VS Code still forwards their folders to Copilot sessions, which loads HVE Core a second time next to any route above. Remove them in this order:

Switch to the Copilot harness, as Use the Copilot Harness describes. If you remove the settings while your sessions still use Local, the agents Local found through them disappear from its picker.
Install one route above and confirm that it works in a Copilot session, using Check That It Works.
Remove the entries that point at HVE Core, reload the window, and run the same checks again.

Check That It Works

Open Copilot Chat in VS Code and confirm that Copilot appears at the start of the chat title. New chats use the Copilot harness by default. If the title shows Local, start a new chat and select Copilot in the Session Target control.
Open the agent picker and confirm RPI Agent is listed.
Type / and confirm HVE Core skills appear. Skills from the plugin carry the plugin name as a prefix, such as /hve-core:rpi-research. Skills copied into your repository appear without it, such as /rpi-research.

In Copilot CLI, run /help and look for hve-core:rpi-agent.

After you install, update, or edit HVE Core files, run Developer: Reload Window. VS Code keeps its list of path-specific instructions for the life of the window, so new chat sessions see instruction changes only after a reload.

If something is missing, see Troubleshooting.

Developer Setup

Contributors who change HVE Core itself work in a fork:

Fork and clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/<your-fork>/hve-core.git

Install dependencies:
```
cd hve-core && npm ci
```
Open the folder in VS Code. A devcontainer configuration is included for containerized development.

Copilot discovers the repository's own agents, skills, and instructions when you open the clone, so you need no other route while you work in it. Work in Copilot harness sessions here too. If the plugin or extension is also installed, disable it while you develop so agents do not appear twice.

The workspace settings also list the repository's package folders, so a Local session still finds its agents while you switch. Copilot Discovery explains this, and the Contributing Guide covers pull request and development conventions.

Distribution Identity and Channels

HVE Core uses one identity: the hve-core plugin and the ise-hve-essentials.hve-core extension carry the same components, which root plugin.json lists. The plugin follows main and has no release channels. The extension has Stable and PreRelease channels on the Marketplace. HVE Core Identity and Channels explains both, including the current state of the extension's release branches.

Post-Installation: Update Your .gitignore

Add this line to your project's .gitignore:

.copilot-tracking/

IMPORTANT

This applies to every install route. Agents create the .copilot-tracking/ folder in your project directory, not in HVE Core itself.

The folder holds working files such as research documents, implementation plans, PR review notes, and work item planning files. Agents use them to keep context across sessions, but they do not belong in your repository's history.

MCP Server Configuration (Optional)

Some HVE Core agents can use MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers for services such as Azure DevOps, Microsoft Learn, or Figma. Agents work without them. Copilot reads servers from .mcp.json at the workspace root, and MCP Server Configuration has the templates, server requirements, and troubleshooting steps.

Next Steps

Your First Interaction to confirm your setup works
Your First Workflow to try HVE Core with a real task
RPI Workflow for the Research, Plan, Implement, Review methodology

🤖 Crafted with precision by ✨Copilot following brilliant human instruction, then carefully refined by our team of discerning human reviewers.

In this article

Use the Copilot Harness​

Choose an Install Route​

Install the Plugin​

Update the Plugin​

Offer the Plugin to Your Team​

Copy HVE Core Into Your Repository​

Use the VS Code Extension​

Work From a Clone​

Use One Route at a Time​

Check That It Works​

Developer Setup​

Distribution Identity and Channels​

Post-Installation: Update Your .gitignore​

MCP Server Configuration (Optional)​

Next Steps​