I use VS Code and my IDE when working in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. Over time I have downloaded and even created my own skills which I use on a daily basis.

This is something that I have built up over time and, for example, my skills only exist on my PC. If my PC were to crash, I could potentially lose those skills.

With that in mind I created my own backup of all my MCP Servers and skills in VS Code, which allows me to have a backup.

I even tested the restore by using the restore process below to my laptop, and it worked perfectly. I highly recommend that you use this to create a backup!

Creating the Backup

Before creating the backup, I set up SharePoint Online and synced it to a local folder on my PC.

This allows me to copy the files locally, while OneDrive manages the copy in the cloud.

Then in the folder called scripts is where I have got my PowerShell scripts

To create a scheduled task for the backup I did the following:

  • I opened the file called “Register-CopilotSkillsBackupTask.ps1”
  • I then gave my Task a name “CopilotSkillsDailyBackup”
  • I then gave it a time I wanted to run “08:05”
  • I then went to my terminal and navigated to where my backup folder is
  • I then ran the following to create the scheduled task
  • .\scripts\Register-CopilotSkillsBackupTask.ps1
  • This will run tomorrow and every day thereafter.

Viewing the Backup Files

Once the backup has been run, I could then see the backup folder with the new folders created that are being backed up

Restoring the Backup

The most important part when creating any type of backup is making sure that the restore actually works and will restore. Trust me I have learnt this lesson the hard way 😊

To complete the restore, I took the following steps.

  • I went to my SharePoint document location and downloaded the entire folder called “Copilot Skills Backup”
  • I then copied this folder to a location on my laptop.
  • I opened VS Code and went into the Terminal.
  • Next, I ran the following to restore all my MCP Servers and skills
  • .\scripts\Restore-CopilotSkills.ps1
  • As shown below this restored all the files to the valid locations
  • I then closed and reopened VS Code and went into the chat to confirm that the skills were loading.

Tip: Consider storing your backup folder in SharePoint or OneDrive with version history enabled. This provides an additional layer of protection and allows you to recover previous versions if required.

Summary

In this blog post, I showed you how to back up and restore your MCP servers and skills when using VS Code.

You can find all the files here for you to use: https://github.com/GilbertQue/Fabric/tree/main/Copilot-backup

Thanks for reading, comments or suggestions are most welcome!