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Adding Your Marketplace to GitHub Copilot

This guide walks you through adding your Willow plugin marketplace to GitHub Copilot CLI.

Prerequisites​

Repository structure​

Willow generates the following layout for GitHub Copilot:

your-org-slug/
├── .github/
│   └── plugin/
│       └── marketplace.json
├── plugins/
│   └── <plugin-slug>/
│       ├── plugin.json
│       ├── .mcp.json
│       ├── skills/
│       │   └── <skill-slug>/
│       │       └── SKILL.md
│       └── agents/
│           └── <agent-slug>.md

Key differences from Cursor and Claude:

  • The root marketplace manifest lives at .github/plugin/marketplace.json
  • Each plugin has its plugin.json at the root of the plugin directory (not inside a hidden folder)
  • The plugin.json includes component directory references (skills, agents, mcpServers)

Step 1: Add the marketplace​

Open your terminal and run:

copilot plugin marketplace add your-org/my-marketplace

This registers the marketplace from your GitHub repository. Copilot CLI reads the .github/plugin/marketplace.json file to discover available plugins.

Other source types​

# From any git URL
copilot plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.com/your-org/my-marketplace.git

# From a local directory (great for testing)
copilot plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace

Step 2: Browse available plugins​

List all plugins available from your registered marketplaces:

copilot plugin list --available

Or in an interactive session:

/plugin list

Step 3: Install a plugin​

Install a plugin from your marketplace:

copilot plugin install my-plugin

After installation, verify it loaded correctly:

copilot plugin list

Step 4: Verify components loaded​

Start a new interactive session and check that the plugin's components are available:

# Check agents
/agent

# Check skills
/skills list

Updating the marketplace​

Refresh your marketplace to pull the latest plugins:

copilot plugin marketplace update your-org/my-marketplace

Removing a plugin or marketplace​

# Uninstall a single plugin
copilot plugin uninstall my-plugin

# Remove the entire marketplace
copilot plugin marketplace remove your-org/my-marketplace

Testing locally​

Before pushing to GitHub, test your marketplace locally:

copilot plugin install ./my-marketplace/plugins/my-plugin
copilot plugin list

To pick up changes after editing a local plugin, reinstall it:

copilot plugin install ./my-marketplace/plugins/my-plugin

Restricting Copilot to the Willow gateway​

This guide distributes your plugin marketplace to Copilot. If you also want to restrict Copilot so it can only use MCP servers reached through your Willow gateway (blocking all others at runtime), see Restrict GitHub Copilot to the Willow Gateway.

Further reading​

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