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Skills for AI agents

Install PPDS Skills to give your AI coding agent guidance for Power Platform Developer Suite (PPDS). The seven skills cover authentication and environment selection, queries, plugins, solutions, metadata, data migration, and web resources.

The skills include command references generated from actual CLI --help output and captured MCP tool names and descriptions. Static checks reject commands and flags absent from those captures. This reduces invented syntax; you should still review the selected environment and proposed changes before authorizing a write.

Prerequisites​

Install the PPDS CLI and either Claude Code or GitHub Copilot CLI. Skills supply instructions; they do not install the CLI, configure authentication, or connect an MCP server for you. The CLI works without MCP; see the MCP reference if your host needs that integration.

The maintenance release includes skills 0.1.2, recaptured from the published CLI 1.4.2 / MCP 1.2.2 packages. The install commands below select the public repository. Check the installed skill's tested versions and use your installed CLI's live --help if they differ. Public capture provenance is included with copied skill folders.

Claude Code​

Run these commands inside Claude Code to add the PPDS marketplace and install its plugin:

/plugin marketplace add joshsmithxrm/ppds-skills
/plugin install ppds@ppds-skills

Use /plugin to inspect the installation. See Claude Code's plugin installation guide for install scopes and updates. If you prefer copying skill directories, follow the PPDS Skills README.

GitHub Copilot CLI​

Copy all seven skill folders into your personal skills directory. Run from a directory that does not already contain a ppds-skills checkout.

On Windows, use PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/joshsmithxrm/ppds-skills
$skillsDestination = Join-Path $HOME '.copilot/skills'
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $skillsDestination -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Path './ppds-skills/skills/*' -Destination $skillsDestination -Recurse -Force

On macOS or Linux, use Bash:

git clone https://github.com/joshsmithxrm/ppds-skills
mkdir -p ~/.copilot/skills
cp -r ppds-skills/skills/* ~/.copilot/skills/

Keep every folder's SKILL.md and references/ together. The skills link to one another, so copying only individual Markdown files loses required context. For project-only installation, use .github/skills/ in your project instead. See GitHub's skill installation guide for supported locations.

In a Copilot session, run /skills reload if it was already open, then /skills list. Confirm that all seven ppds-* skills appear.

Check the installation​

Ask your agent: "Use PPDS core guidance to explain how I select a Dataverse environment. Do not authenticate or change any records." It should load the core skill and refer to PPDS commands. This checks discovery without requiring a live environment.

When you are ready to connect, follow the authentication guide. For skill corrections and reference updates, use the PPDS Skills repository.