Install: Desktop app — hve-squad-plugin

Prerequisites

The GitHub Copilot desktop app, or VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension, signed in
Read access to Peter-N91/hve-squad-plugin (public — no extra access grant needed)

1. Open the Plugins settings panel

In VS Code: open Settings → Extensions → Copilot → Plugins (or the equivalent Plugins panel in the standalone desktop app). This panel lists installed plugins and offers a search/install action for new ones.

2. Search for and install both plugins

Search for Peter-N91/hve-squad-plugin (or paste the repository URL if the panel accepts one). This marketplace publishes two entries, and you need both:

hve-squad — the squad's own agents, skills, hooks, and MCP server entry
hve-squad-hve-core — the microsoft/hve-core agents and skills the squad's roles dispatch to, pinned to the exact commit the matching hve-squad release was validated against

Choose Install on each. The client fetches .github/plugin/plugin.json from this repository the same way the CLI does, and registers the same agents, skills, hooks, and MCP server entry.

Install hve-core from here, not from its own source. Most squad roles resolve to an hve-core agent, so hve-squad alone leaves those roles unresolvable. Installing hve-core directly from microsoft/hve-core instead gives you whatever is current there, which can be ahead of the routing tables and role charters your installed squad version references. The hve-squad-hve-core entry carries the validated commit pin, which is the whole point of publishing it here.

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The Copilot Plugins settings panel with hve-squad-plugin found/installed

3. Confirm it works in chat

Open Copilot Chat and ask it to use the squad — for example, "use the squad to research this codebase" — or address an agent directly by its namespaced name, hve-squad:squad-coordinator. A successful dispatch shows the Squad Coordinator's response in the chat view.

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A successful hve-squad agent invocation shown in the Copilot chat view

Updating later

This marketplace does not set autoUpdate, so updates are explicit. When a new release lands, update both entries in the same sitting — each hve-squad release pins the hve-core commit it was validated against, so moving one forward without the other reintroduces exactly the version skew the pin exists to prevent.

In the Plugins panel, refresh the marketplace listing, then choose the update action on hve-squad. For hve-squad-hve-core, remove it and install it again rather than using the update action.

hve-squad-hve-core must be removed and reinstalled, not updated. Its recorded version comes from upstream hve-core's own plugin.json, not from this marketplace's entry, so a release that bumps only the pinned commit leaves that number unchanged. Any update action — panel button or copilot plugin update — then reports it as already current and keeps the old files. Removing it clears that state so the reinstall fetches the newly pinned commit. See Install: Copilot CLI for the full explanation and the exact commands.

Do not also install the official hve-core plugin. If you run the squad, take hve-core only through this marketplace's hve-squad-hve-core entry. Installing the official hve-core plugin alongside it registers a second copy of every hve-core agent and skill, tracking whatever is current upstream rather than the validated commit. Squad roles resolve to hve-core agents by name, so a dispatch can land on that unpinned copy and silently escape the pin. The distinct entry name exists so the two do not collide at install time, not as an endorsement of running both.

Same manifest, same result. The desktop/VS Code Plugins path and the copilot plugin install CLI command both resolve the same .github/plugin/plugin.json manifest in this repository — there is no separate desktop-only distribution to keep in sync. See Install: Copilot CLI for the equivalent command-line steps and the install-flow diagram.