Understand-Anything/.vscode/INSTALL.md

Installing Understand-Anything for VS Code + GitHub Copilot

Prerequisites

• VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension (v1.108+)
• Git

Option A — Auto-discovery (recommended)

Clone this repo and open it in VS Code. GitHub Copilot automatically discovers the plugin via .copilot-plugin/plugin.json — no manual steps required.

git clone https://github.com/Lum1104/Understand-Anything.git
code Understand-Anything

Skills will appear when you type / in GitHub Copilot Chat.

Option B — Personal skills (available across all projects)

1. Clone the repository (to any location you prefer):

   git clone https://github.com/Lum1104/Understand-Anything.git ~/understand-anything
   

2. Create a symlink for each skill into ~/.copilot/skills/:

   mkdir -p ~/.copilot/skills
   SKILLS_DIR=~/understand-anything/understand-anything-plugin/skills
   for skill in "$SKILLS_DIR"/*/; do
     ln -sf "$skill" ~/.copilot/skills/$(basename "$skill")
   done
   # Universal plugin root symlink — lets the dashboard skill find packages/dashboard/
   # Skip if already exists (e.g. another platform was installed first)
   [ -e ~/.understand-anything-plugin ] || [ -L ~/.understand-anything-plugin ] || \
     ln -s ~/understand-anything/understand-anything-plugin ~/.understand-anything-plugin
   

   Windows (PowerShell):

   New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.copilot\skills"
   $skillsDir = "$env:USERPROFILE\understand-anything\understand-anything-plugin\skills"
   Get-ChildItem $skillsDir -Directory | ForEach-Object {
     cmd /c mklink /J "$env:USERPROFILE\.copilot\skills\$($_.Name)" $_.FullName
   }
   cmd /c mklink /J "$env:USERPROFILE\.understand-anything-plugin" "$env:USERPROFILE\understand-anything\understand-anything-plugin"
   

3. Reload VS Code (Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window) so GitHub Copilot discovers the skills.

Verify

Type / in GitHub Copilot Chat — you should see all six skills listed:

• understand — build the knowledge graph
• understand-chat — ask questions about the codebase
• understand-dashboard — open the interactive dashboard
• understand-diff — analyze impact of current changes
• understand-explain — deep-dive into a file or function
• understand-onboard — generate an onboarding guide

Usage

Skills activate automatically when relevant. You can also invoke them directly by typing / in Copilot Chat and selecting a skill.

Updating

cd ~/understand-anything && git pull

Skills update instantly through the symlinks.

Uninstalling

for skill in understand understand-chat understand-dashboard understand-diff understand-explain understand-onboard; do
  rm -f ~/.copilot/skills/$skill
done
rm -f ~/.understand-anything-plugin
rm -rf ~/understand-anything