skill-recorder
microsoft · microsoft/skill-recorder
This desktop app records user screen activity to generate reusable agent skills or automations by reconstructing intent and steps for Copilot and other Microsoft AI platforms.
Desktop app that records your on-screen work session and uses the GitHub Copilot SDK to reconstruct it as an intent + ordered steps, then builds a reusable Skill or Automation for Microsoft Autopilots like Scout, Microsoft Copilot Cowork, or Copilot Studio.
See it in action
From the author's README microsoft ·Source
What you can do with it
- Record your actions to demonstrate a complex setup process and have the agent generate a reusable skill.
- Create an automated workflow for deploying a new web application by recording manual deployment steps.
- Teach your Copilot agent a new task, like generating specific reports, by simply performing it once on screen.
Safety check
No risky patterns found in the files we scanned.
Automated scan of the repo files. Always review code you run.
From the README
Skill Recorder
Record yourself doing a task once, then turn it into a skill your AI agent can repeat.
[!TIP] Want to install Skill Recorder? Go to the latest release. Scroll to Commit-pinned installation and copy the complete command for your operating system. It is ready to paste: you do not need to edit it or download the source code yourself. Step-by-step instructions below.
Skill Recorder captures a real work session on your screen: the clicks, the app and window switches, the pages you visit, commands/output from its optional recorded terminal, and (if you want) your spoken narration. It then uses the GitHub Copilot CLI to reconstruct what you actually did as a clear intent plus an ordered list of steps. From there, one step turns that single run into something an agent can reuse:
- a Skill: a
SKILL.mdprocedure an agent runs on demand, or - an Automation: the same procedure on a schedule or trigger.
Both prefer the agent's native tools (like the gh CLI or web_fetch) over replaying
UI clicks, and generalize from your one example, so recording yourself submitting one
form can teach the agent to submit all of them.
How it works
- 🔴 Record. Hit record (or
⌘⇧R/Ctrl+Shift+Rfrom anywhere) and just do your task. Skill Recorder captures your screen and activity locally, in the background. - 🎛️ Control. While recording, a small always-on-top bar shows capture, microphone, and recorded-terminal state. Open the session-scoped terminal, mute, unmute, or switch mics, then finish or discard with confirmation.
- 🧠 Analyze. Click Analyze and GitHub Copilot reconstructs one overall intent and an ordered list of steps. Review and edit until it reads right.
- ✨ Create. From an approved analysis, generate a reusable Skill and/or a scheduled Automation.
For skills, Review SKILL.md optionally shows the complete, read-only file text (including frontmatter) before installation or export. Preparing a preview writes no skill files. Close and reopen it without regenerating; Add/Export from either surface uses that exact preview. Editing the plan discards the preview. You can still choose Add/Export directly without reviewing or adding a confirmation step. Review provides visibility into the generated instructions, not a security guarantee.
Get started
Skill Recorder is published as a source release: one command downloads a pinned Node.js runtime, builds the exact release commit on your machine, and adds a Skill Recorder (Source) app you can relaunch anytime. Nothing is installed globally. You'll need a GitHub account with Copilot access; the Copilot CLI ships with the app.
macOS is the primary target. Windows 11 (x64 and ARM64) is supported too (see
WINDOWS-VALIDATION.md).
Install it
Open the latest release and follow these steps:
- On the release page, scroll to Commit-pinned installation. Find Windows 11 x64 or ARM64 or macOS or Ubuntu, then copy the entire command in that section using the copy button at the top-right of the code block.
- Open PowerShell from the Windows Start menu, or Terminal on macOS or Ubuntu. Paste the command and press Enter.
- Keep that window open while installation completes. The installer downloads what it needs, builds the app on your computer, creates shortcuts, and launches Skill Recorder. The first installation can take several minutes.
[!IMPORTANT] Copy the command from the release page, not a template from the technical docs. The release command already contains the correct version identifier; there is nothing to replace. Do not paste commands containing
<40-character-release-commit>literally. You do not need Git, a separate Node.js installation, or the Manual developer setup instructions. The Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz) links under Assets are not app installers.
To review the script before running it, follow the release page's inspect-first instructions instead. Installation remains subject to your organization's policies.
Open it again later: use Skill Recorder (Source) on your Windows desktop or
Start Menu; on macOS, find it in ~/Applications, Spotlight, or Launchpad; on
Ubuntu, use the matching application entry. You do not need to reinstall each time.
Advanced options, including running in the background on macOS or Ubuntu, are in
INSTALL.md.
Then record
- Grant Screen Recording. On first launch, macOS asks for Screen Recording permission; grant it and you're ready to record.
- Record, Analyze, Create. Do your task, then Analyze. The first time you Analyze, Skill Recorder offers Sign in to Copilot if you aren't signed in yet. Finish authorization in your browser; the app verifies sign-in and automatically retries the interrupted analysis once. There is no login terminal window to close. Canceling sign-in or leaving that analysis prevents the automatic retry.
On Windows, a local Microsoft Entra tenant hint can offer a choice between
Microsoft Enterprise SSO and a Personal GitHub account. This is only a
routing hint, not proof of employment. Microsoft sign-in has two separate steps:
finish SSO in the browser, then authorize the GitHub Copilot app. When SSO lands on
github.com/enterprises/microsoft, close that tab, return to Skill Recorder, and
choose Authorize Copilot. SSO alone does not authorize the app. Use the same
browser profile and Microsoft-linked GitHub account for both steps.
Without a hint, and on macOS/Linux,
sign-in goes directly to the standard GitHub flow. No work-email prompt is required.
The author

