fix: Preserve command namespace in Copilot skill names

Stop stripping namespace prefixes when converting commands to Copilot
skills. `workflows:plan` now becomes `workflows-plan` instead of just
`plan`, avoiding clashes with Copilot's own features in the chat UI.

Also updates slash command references in body text to match:
`/workflows:plan` → `/workflows-plan`.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: brayanjuls

docs/brainstorms/2026-02-17-copilot-skill-naming-brainstorm.md

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+---
+date: 2026-02-17
+topic: copilot-skill-naming
+---
+
+# Copilot Skill Naming: Preserve Namespace
+
+## What We're Building
+
+Change the Copilot converter to preserve command namespaces when converting commands to skills. Currently `workflows:plan` flattens to `plan`, which is too generic and clashes with Copilot's own features in the chat suggestion UI.
+
+## Why This Approach
+
+The `flattenCommandName` function strips everything before the last colon, producing names like `plan`, `review`, `work` that are too generic for Copilot's skill discovery UI. Replacing colons with hyphens (`workflows:plan` -> `workflows-plan`) preserves context while staying within valid filename characters.
+
+## Key Decisions
+
+- **Replace colons with hyphens** instead of stripping the prefix: `workflows:plan` -> `workflows-plan`
+- **Copilot only** — other converters (Cursor, Droid, etc.) keep their current flattening behavior
+- **Content transformation too** — slash command references in body text also use hyphens: `/workflows:plan` -> `/workflows-plan`
+
+## Changes Required
+
+1. `src/converters/claude-to-copilot.ts` — change `flattenCommandName` to replace colons with hyphens
+2. `src/converters/claude-to-copilot.ts` — update `transformContentForCopilot` slash command rewriting
+3. `tests/copilot-converter.test.ts` — update affected tests
+
+## Next Steps
+
+-> Implement directly (small, well-scoped change)

src/converters/claude-to-copilot.ts

@@ -113,13 +113,13 @@ export function transformContentForCopilot(body: string): string {
     return `${prefix}Use the ${skillName} skill to: ${args.trim()}`
   })
 
-  // 2. Transform slash command references (flatten namespaces)
+  // 2. Transform slash command references (replace colons with hyphens)
   const slashCommandPattern = /(?<![:\w])\/([a-z][a-z0-9_:-]*?)(?=[\s,."')\]}`]|$)/gi
   result = result.replace(slashCommandPattern, (match, commandName: string) => {
     if (commandName.includes("/")) return match
     if (["dev", "tmp", "etc", "usr", "var", "bin", "home"].includes(commandName)) return match
-    const flattened = flattenCommandName(commandName)
-    return `/${flattened}`
+    const normalized = flattenCommandName(commandName)
+    return `/${normalized}`
   })
 
   // 3. Rewrite .claude/ paths to .github/ and ~/.claude/ to ~/.copilot/
@@ -179,9 +179,7 @@ function prefixEnvVars(env: Record<string, string>): Record<string, string> {
 }
 
 function flattenCommandName(name: string): string {
-  const colonIndex = name.lastIndexOf(":")
-  const base = colonIndex >= 0 ? name.slice(colonIndex + 1) : name
-  return normalizeName(base)
+  return normalizeName(name)
 }
 
 function normalizeName(value: string): string {

tests/copilot-converter.test.ts

@@ -169,20 +169,46 @@ describe("convertClaudeToCopilot", () => {
 
     expect(bundle.generatedSkills).toHaveLength(1)
     const skill = bundle.generatedSkills[0]
-    expect(skill.name).toBe("plan")
+    expect(skill.name).toBe("workflows-plan")
 
     const parsed = parseFrontmatter(skill.content)
-    expect(parsed.data.name).toBe("plan")
+    expect(parsed.data.name).toBe("workflows-plan")
     expect(parsed.data.description).toBe("Planning command")
     expect(parsed.body).toContain("Plan the work.")
   })
 
-  test("flattens namespaced command names", () => {
+  test("preserves namespaced command names with hyphens", () => {
     const bundle = convertClaudeToCopilot(fixturePlugin, defaultOptions)
-    expect(bundle.generatedSkills[0].name).toBe("plan")
+    expect(bundle.generatedSkills[0].name).toBe("workflows-plan")
   })
 
-  test("command name collision after flattening is deduplicated", () => {
+  test("command name collision after normalization is deduplicated", () => {
+    const plugin: ClaudePlugin = {
+      ...fixturePlugin,
+      commands: [
+        {
+          name: "workflows:plan",
+          description: "Workflow plan",
+          body: "Plan body.",
+          sourcePath: "/tmp/plugin/commands/workflows/plan.md",
+        },
+        {
+          name: "workflows:plan",
+          description: "Duplicate plan",
+          body: "Duplicate body.",
+          sourcePath: "/tmp/plugin/commands/workflows/plan2.md",
+        },
+      ],
+      agents: [],
+      skills: [],
+    }
+
+    const bundle = convertClaudeToCopilot(plugin, defaultOptions)
+    const names = bundle.generatedSkills.map((s) => s.name)
+    expect(names).toEqual(["workflows-plan", "workflows-plan-2"])
+  })
+
+  test("namespaced and non-namespaced commands produce distinct names", () => {
     const plugin: ClaudePlugin = {
       ...fixturePlugin,
       commands: [
@@ -205,7 +231,7 @@ describe("convertClaudeToCopilot", () => {
 
     const bundle = convertClaudeToCopilot(plugin, defaultOptions)
     const names = bundle.generatedSkills.map((s) => s.name)
-    expect(names).toEqual(["plan", "plan-2"])
+    expect(names).toEqual(["workflows-plan", "plan"])
   })
 
   test("command allowedTools is silently dropped", () => {
@@ -418,14 +444,14 @@ Task best-practices-researcher(topic)`
     expect(result).not.toContain("Task repo-research-analyst(")
   })
 
-  test("flattens slash commands", () => {
+  test("replaces colons with hyphens in slash commands", () => {
     const input = `1. Run /deepen-plan to enhance
 2. Start /workflows:work to implement
 3. File at /tmp/output.md`
 
     const result = transformContentForCopilot(input)
     expect(result).toContain("/deepen-plan")
-    expect(result).toContain("/work")
+    expect(result).toContain("/workflows-work")
     expect(result).not.toContain("/workflows:work")
     // File paths preserved
     expect(result).toContain("/tmp/output.md")