VS Code Extension

Canopy Skills is the official VS Code extension for authoring Canopy skills. It turns SKILL.md and ops.md files into a first-class editor experience — autocomplete for primitives and custom ops, real-time semantic diagnostics, hover docs on every ALL_CAPS identifier, and F12 go-to-definition across the skill → project → framework op-lookup chain.

Source repo: github.com/kostiantyn-matsebora/claude-canopy-vscode.

Install

From the VS Code Marketplace (recommended):

code --install-extension canopy-ai.canopy-skills

Or open the Extensions panel in VS Code, search “Canopy Skills”, and click Install.

For offline installs, every release ships a .vsix on the Releases page:

code --install-extension canopy-skills-<version>.vsix

Requirements: VS Code 1.85+. Some commands additionally require git, gh skill (≥2.90.0), or claude on PATH — the extension shows availability badges in its install picker.

Features

Syntax highlighting for five language IDs covering every Canopy file type — SKILL.md, ops.md, verify checklists, templates, constants, policies, schemas, and command scripts. Both the agentskills.io standard layout (assets/, scripts/, references/) and the legacy flat layout are recognised.

IntelliSense in SKILL.md and ops.md:

Completion What it suggests
Op names Skill-local ops, project-level ops, and framework primitives — with the right tree-node prefix (* or ├── ) auto-inserted
Primitives All framework built-ins (IF, SWITCH, FOR_EACH, ASK, SHOW_PLAN, VERIFY_EXPECTED, …) with descriptions
Frontmatter name, description, compatibility, license, metadata, allowed-tools (agentskills.io spec); argument-hint and user-invocable inside metadata
Category resources Read `category/path` directives for constants/, policies/, templates/, schemas/, checklists/, verify/, references/

Hover documentation on every framework primitive and custom op — signature, description, and a usage example. No context-switch to the framework docs.

Go-to-definition (F12) on any ALL_CAPS identifier. Resolves through the standard op-lookup chain: current skill’s ops.md → consumer-defined cross-skill ops → framework primitives.

Semantic diagnostics with Quick Fixes. Real-time squiggles for:

Check Catches
Frontmatter Missing name/description, unknown root keys, argument-hint/user-invocable at root (must live in metadata)
compatibility field Block-form / inline-flow maps (must be free-text per spec); >500 chars; missing canopy-runtime mention on ## Tree skills
Tree syntax >> before <<, empty operator slots
Primitive signatures IF/ELSE_IF without <<; ASK without options; SHOW_PLAN without >>; VERIFY_EXPECTED wrong path prefix; EXPLORE without >>
Resource references Read paths use a recognised category and the file exists on disk
Unknown ops Configurable severity for ALL_CAPS names not found in any registry
Op conformance hints Tree node’s <</>> doesn’t match the op’s declared signature

Commands

All commands are in the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P), grouped into three categories that sort alphabetically into a natural workflow order:

Canopy Install — install Canopy into your project

Command What it does
Install… Unified entry point — Quick Pick of three install methods with availability badges based on which CLIs are on PATH
Install (via install script) Clones canopy and runs install.sh/install.ps1 (Claude / Copilot / Both / Cross-client .agents/skills/); writes the canopy-runtime marker block proactively
Install as Agent Skill (gh skill) gh skill install per skill (Claude Code / Copilot / Cross-client)
Install as Claude Code Plugin Copies the /plugin slash commands to clipboard for paste in a Claude Code session

Canopy Skill — describe it, let AI write it

Auto-detects the installed AI target (Claude Code or Copilot) and invokes claude or gh copilot suggest. Start here when you don’t want to learn the framework yet — describe what you want and the agent does the rest.

Command What it does
Create Skill Describe a skill; the agent writes it end-to-end
Modify Skill Pick a skill, describe the change
Scaffold Skill Provide a name; the agent creates the blank structure
Convert to Canopy Converts a plain-markdown skill to Canopy tree format
Validate Skill Checks a skill against all framework rules
Improve Skill Aligns a skill with the latest framework conventions
Advise Ask the agent a design question about Canopy
Refactor Skills Extracts shared ops and resources across multiple skills
Convert to Regular Skill Converts a Canopy skill back to plain markdown
Help Lists all available agent operations

Canopy Template — manual scaffolding

For authors who know the framework and prefer to hand-write skills. Each command drops a correctly-structured blank file at the right path; you fill in the content.

Command Description
New Skill Creates SKILL.md + ops.md for a new skill
New Verify File Scaffolds a verify/ checklist
New Template Scaffolds a templates/ file (.md, .yaml, .yaml.gotmpl)
New Constants File Scaffolds a constants/ lookup file
New Policy File Scaffolds a policies/ rule file
New Script File Scaffolds a scripts/ script (.ps1 or .sh)
New Schema Scaffolds a schemas/ file

Settings

Setting Default Description
canopy.frameworkUrl https://github.com/kostiantyn-matsebora/claude-canopy Framework repo URL used by install commands
canopy.validate.enabled true Enable/disable all real-time validation
canopy.validate.unknownOps "warning" Severity for unresolved op names: error, warning, hint, none
canopy.validate.opConformance true Show hints when <</>> usage doesn’t match the op’s declared signature

Versioning

The extension tracks the framework version it supports — see the Tracks Canopy badge in the extension’s README. When the framework adds a new primitive, category directory, or signature change, the extension publishes a matching release that recognises it.

Where to learn more