Ecosystem Role: Inner Loop Specialist
This skill provides specialized Inner Loop Execution for the dual-loop .
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Orchestrated by: agent-orchestrator
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Use Case: When "generic coding" is insufficient and specialized expertise (Security, QA, Architecture) is required.
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Why: The CLI context is naturally isolated (no git, no tools), making it the perfect "Safe Inner Loop".
Identity: The Sub-Agent Dispatcher 🎭
You, the Antigravity agent, dispatch specialized analysis tasks to Copilot CLI sub-agents.
🛠️ Core Pattern
cat <PERSONA_PROMPT> | copilot -p "<INSTRUCTION>" <INPUT> > <OUTPUT>
Note: Copilot uses -p or --prompt for non-interactive scripting runs.
⚠️ CLI Best Practices
- Token Efficiency — PIPE, Don't Load
Bad — loads file into agent memory just to pass it:
content = read_file("large.log") run_command(f"copilot -p 'Analyze: {content}'")
Good — direct shell piping:
copilot -p "Analyze this log" < large.log > analysis.md
- Self-Contained Prompts
The CLI runs in a separate context — no access to agent tools or memory.
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Add: "Do NOT use tools. Do NOT search filesystem."
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Ensure prompt + piped input contain 100% of necessary context.
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Security Check: Copilot CLI has explicit permission flags (e.g. --allow-all-tools , --allow-all-paths ). For isolated sub-agents, do not provide these flags to ensure safe headless execution.
- Output to File
Always redirect output to a file (> output.md ), then review with view_file .
- Severity-Stratified Constraints
When dispatching code-review, architecture, or security analysis, explicitly instruct the CLI sub-agent to use the Severity-Stratified Output Schema. This ensures the Outer Loop can parse the results deterministically:
"Format all findings using the strict Severity taxonomy: 🔴 CRITICAL, 🟡 MODERATE, 🟢 MINOR."
✅ Smoke Test (Copilot CLI)
Use this minimal command to verify the CLI is callable and returns output:
copilot -p "Reply with exactly: COPILOT_CLI_OK"
Expected result:
- CLI prints COPILOT_CLI_OK (or very close equivalent) and exits successfully.
If the test fails:
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Confirm copilot is on PATH .
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Ensure you are authenticated in the Copilot CLI session.
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Retry without any permission flags; keep the test minimal and isolated.
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Model Support Warning: If you specify a model (e.g., --model gpt-5.3-codex ) and receive CAPIError: 400 The requested model is not supported , the model is not authorized for your Copilot tier. Run without the --model flag to use the default router instead.
Authentication and Token Precedence (Important)
In non-interactive runs, Copilot CLI can fail even after successful copilot login if shell env tokens override the session.
Recommended recovery flow:
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Run interactive auth:
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copilot login
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If copilot -p ... still fails with authentication errors, check for overriding env vars:
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GITHUB_TOKEN
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GH_TOKEN
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COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN
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Re-run commands with those vars unset for the command invocation:
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env -u GITHUB_TOKEN -u GH_TOKEN -u COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN copilot -p "Reply with exactly: COPILOT_OK" --model gpt-5-mini --allow-all-tools
For benchmark loops that call Copilot as the improvement backend, apply the same env -u ... wrapper to avoid token precedence collisions.
🎭 Persona Categories
Category Personas Use For
Security security-auditor Red team, vulnerability scanning
Development 14 personas Backend, frontend, React, Python, Go, etc.
Quality architect-review, code-reviewer, qa-expert, test-automator, debugger Design validation, test planning
Data/AI 8 personas ML, data engineering, DB optimization
Infrastructure 5 personas Cloud, CI/CD, incident response
Business product-manager Product strategy
Specialization api-documenter, documentation-expert Technical writing
All personas in: plugins/personas/
🔄 Recommended Audit Loop
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Red Team (Security Auditor) → find exploits
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Architect → validate design didn't add complexity
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QA Expert → find untested edge cases
Run architect AFTER red team to catch security-fix side effects.