Redaguoti

WinUI agent plugin for GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code

The winui@awesome-copilot plugin gives the GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code accurate, up-to-date knowledge of WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK. It includes 8 specialized skills and a dedicated winui-dev agent that guides AI through the full development loop — scaffold, build, run, test, package, and migrate.

Note

This plugin works with the GitHub Copilot CLI (a terminal tool) and Claude Code. It does not currently integrate with VS Code Copilot Chat. For VS Code-based AI assistance without the plugin, see the quickstart.

Why do I need this plugin?

Without the plugin, AI coding agents frequently suggest outdated UWP patterns for Windows development. UWP has far more training data (Stack Overflow answers, GitHub samples, tutorials) than WinUI 3, so agents default to deprecated APIs:

Without plugin With plugin
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Controls
CoreDispatcher DispatcherQueue
MessageDialog ContentDialog
Windows.UI.Xaml.Window Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Window

The plugin fixes this by injecting explicit WinUI 3 rules as custom instructions that override the agent's training data defaults.

Install the plugin

Requires: The Windows App Development CLI (winget install Microsoft.winappcli --source winget).

GitHub Copilot CLI

Requires: GitHub Copilot CLI (winget install GitHub.Copilot).

gh copilot plugin install winui@awesome-copilot

This installs the plugin user-globally to ~\.copilot\installed-plugins\. Verify with:

gh copilot plugin list

Claude Code

Claude Code uses its own plugin registry:

claude plugin marketplace add microsoft/win-dev-skills
claude plugin install winui@win-dev-skills

Use with GitHub Copilot CLI

The GitHub Copilot CLI runs in your terminal. Use the @winui-dev agent by including it in your prompt:

gh copilot -p "@winui-dev Build me a WinUI 3 app that shows a list of files in a folder"

For an interactive session where you can ask follow-up questions:

copilot -i

Then type your requests directly, for example: @winui-dev Add a search box to my file list app.

To set up your machine for WinUI 3 development, run the winui-setup skill first:

gh copilot -p "/winui-setup"

Use with Claude Code

After installing the plugin, use the @winui-dev agent in Claude Code's chat interface the same way — prefix your request with @winui-dev.

The winui-dev agent

The winui-dev agent orchestrates the full development loop. It knows how to drive each stage, recognize common failure patterns that get generic agents stuck in loops, and steer toward successful WinUI 3 patterns.

The agent loads winui-design and winui-dev-workflow by default, which covers most "build me a WinUI 3 app" requests end-to-end. It pulls in the other skills as needed based on your request.

The 8 skills

The plugin includes 8 specialized skills. The winui-dev agent selects the appropriate skill automatically based on your request.

Skill What it does
winui-setup Installs and verifies machine prerequisites — .NET SDK, WinApp CLI, WinUI 3 templates, Developer Mode. Run explicitly with /winui-setup; the agent won't load it automatically
winui-dev-workflow Guides the scaffold → build → run → iterate loop
winui-design Generates XAML layouts using WinUI 3 controls and Fluent Design. Includes a grounded control lookup tool against the WinUI Gallery and Community Toolkit catalogue
winui-code-review Reviews your code for WinUI 3 correctness and anti-patterns
winui-ui-testing Generates UI tests using Windows UI Automation
winui-packaging Guides MSIX packaging, signing, and Store submission
winui-wpf-migration Migrates WPF code to WinUI 3 with API-level mappings
winui-session-report Summarizes what was built in a session and suggests next steps

Browse and discover more plugins

You can browse and install Copilot plugins directly from VS Code using the Awesome Copilot extension, which lets you preview and install resources from the community repository into your workspace.

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