From one-off prompts to workflows: How to use custom agents in GitHub Copilot CLI

Developers often work within the Command Line Interface (CLI) to execute tasks swiftly, but this can involve repetitive steps and friction. To address this, GitHub Copilot CLI introduces custom agents, which are Markdown-defined Copilot agents tailored to specific development tasks. These agents allow teams to encode their context into reusable workflows that align with their tools and standards, ensuring consistency and efficiency. Custom agents can be specialized, like an accessibility expert adhering to WCAG standards or a security audit agent that runs checks and outputs a checklist. They are defined in agent profiles stored in repositories, enabling version control, review, and sharing. This approach standardizes workflows, reduces redundant work, and maintains continuity between the CLI, IDE, and GitHub, transforming the CLI from a mere command executor to a supportive, context-aware tool in a team's development process.