CrestApp Agent skills introduction

Based on the documentation provided, here is an overview of the CrestApps.AgentSkills project, its purpose, and how you can get started with its various foundations.

What is the project?

CrestApps.AgentSkills is a repository that contains shared AI agent skills and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tooling. The project is designed for .NET applications and Orchard Core-based projects. It acts as a single source of truth to host and organize shared skills by framework.

What is it for?

The project provides different tools and packages to solve specific AI integration problems for developers:

• CrestApps.AgentSkills.Mcp: Provides a framework-agnostic, reusable MCP skill engine that discovers and exposes agent skills as MCP Prompts and Resources for any .NET app.
• CrestApps.AgentSkills.OrchardCore: A development-only package that distributes shared AI agent instruction and guardrail files. It is used for Orchard Core local AI authoring by automatically copying skills to an .agents/skills directory inside your solution during the build process.
• CrestApps.AgentSkills.Mcp.OrchardCore: Allows you to load Orchard Core skills at runtime, exposing them as MCP prompts and resources without needing to copy files into your solution directory.
• Orchard Core Copilot CLI Plugin: A plugin for GitHub Copilot CLI that allows developers to access the Orchard Core skills directly from their command line without manually copying skill files or managing NuGet packages.

How to run the project as a demo

Because the project provides multiple foundations, you can run a demo depending on the specific functionality you want to explore:

1. To demo the Generic MCP Skill Engine Add the package to your .NET project via your CLI:

dotnet add package CrestApps.AgentSkills.Mcp

Then, add the server to your C# code:

builder.Services.AddMcpServer(mcp =>
{
    mcp.AddAgentSkills();
});

2. To demo Orchard Core Local AI Authoring Add the package to your project and run a build:

dotnet add package CrestApps.AgentSkills.OrchardCore
dotnet build

Note: After the first build, you will see a newly created .agents/skills/orchardcore directory containing the skill templates in your solution root.

3. To demo Orchard Core MCP Server Hosting Add the corresponding runtime package:

dotnet add package CrestApps.AgentSkills.Mcp.OrchardCore

Then, register it in your application code:

builder.Services.AddMcpServer(mcp =>
{
    mcp.AddOrchardCoreSkills();
});

4. To demo the GitHub Copilot CLI Plugin Run the following terminal commands to add the marketplace and install the plugin:

copilot plugin marketplace add CrestApps/CrestApps.AgentSkills
copilot plugin install crestapps-orchardcore@crestapps-agentskills

You can verify it is working by running copilot plugin list to see your installed plugins, or /skills list if you are inside an interactive Copilot CLI session.