All bank and government skills
Getting a skill approved
A short guide for the person who has to walk this past IT, risk and records.
The route
Find the right door
Ask who approves new Copilot agents or customisations. Often it is an AI working group, IT security or the operational risk team.
Bring one skill, not ten
Pick the one with the least sensitive material. A first yes makes the rest easier.
Fill in before you ask
Owner, sign-off chain and classification. A blank owner is the fastest way to a no.
Hand over the review sheet
SECURITY-REVIEW.txt is in every zip, and it answers most of the list below.
Offer a small trial
A few named people, invented material, a fixed end date, and a written result.
Agree how it stays controlled
Who approves changes, when it is reviewed, and how it gets withdrawn.
What IT will ask
They askYou can say
What exactly is it?Text files. One set of instructions in a SKILL.md, or a manifest and instructions for an agent. Open them in Notepad.
Does it run code?No. There are no scripts, and the publisher's validator fails any pack with one. Please check for yourself.
Can it reach the internet?The skill declares no web access and contains no addresses, other than placeholders the manifest format requires. It cannot remove tools Copilot already has. In VS Code that takes admin policy; in Microsoft 365 admins can turn web search off. Source
Where does our data go?To the Copilot service you already use, under your existing agreement. The skill adds nothing to that path. For Microsoft 365, Microsoft documents its boundaries, including that non-EU queries may be processed elsewhere. For GitHub, see its Trust Center. IT confirms this against your contract. Source
Will it answer from general knowledge?It is told not to, and the agent sets discourage_model_knowledge. Microsoft says this is no guarantee, so you should test it with questions that have no answer in your sources. Source
What about hostile text in a document?Each skill says document text is content, not instructions, and to report such text. Microsoft has its own defences. Neither is a guarantee, so the skill also has no actions it could be tricked into running. Source
Who can use it, and how do we stop it?Microsoft 365 admins control access per agent and can block it. In VS Code, IT can block standalone skills by policy; in a repository, remove the folder. Source
What is the audit trail?Each skill has a version, an owner and a change log, and each output names the skill version. Purview can retain Copilot interactions in Microsoft 365. Ask IT about GitHub. Source
Who owns it after you?The role named in the skill. The publisher provides a template; we own and answer for our copy.
Has it been tested?The publisher followed it by hand on invented cases and checked the packages offline against the published schema. It has not been run in real Copilot, so a trial on invented material is part of this request.
Does it meet our regulator's rules?Nobody is claiming that. Risk and legal decide. The skill helps a person draft, and a person signs.
What about our government cloud?Support varies by cloud, and Microsoft's pages are not fully consistent. IT should check in your own tenant before anyone relies on this. Source
This guide is practical help, not legal advice.