What is claude copilot-instructions.md?

Repository instructions for AI coding assistants working with an Azure starter project that connects Anthropic's Claude models to Microsoft Foundry. They explain the project structure, setup choices, environment variables, and working rules.

Helping with setup, deployment failures, quota checks, cleanup, and code changes in the Claude on Foundry Starter Kit.

They give an assistant the project's rules and deployment context, reducing guesses about which setup, commands, or configuration to use.

How Azure-Samples/claude configures GitHub Copilot

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to Azure-Samples/claude. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure-Samples/claude/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Azure-Samples/claude

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/azure-samples/claude/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 1,703 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 1,703 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.01703	$0.01703
Opus 5.5	$0.00681	$0.00681
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00341	$0.00341
Haiku 4.5	$0.00170	$0.00170

Measured 13d ago against content hash d9410e7e2909, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

claude copilot-instructions.md scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 13d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

4. **Confirm before destructive actions.** Always get explicit user OK before: `az cognitiveservices account purge`, `azd down`, `az role assignment delete`, deleting `.azure-cli/`, editing `~/.claude/settings.json`.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 58 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 58 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Repository instructions for Copilot (and other AI assistants)

Anyone with Copilot Chat (or another AI assistant that reads .github/copilot-instructions.md and AGENTS.md) clones this repo and instantly gets a guided experience. Ask the assistant in plain English — "help me deploy", "my deployment failed", "clean up and free quota" — and it follows the conventions below plus the deep playbook in skills/claude-on-foundry/SKILL.md.

This is the Claude on Foundry Starter Kit (Azure-Samples/claude · aka.ms/claude/start). It provisions a Microsoft Foundry account with Claude model deployments via azd up, and wires the Anthropic SDK + Claude Code CLI to it using Microsoft Entra ID (no API keys).

Repo shape — never assume, always check

Two IaC variants ship side-by-side. The user picks ONE. Never edit or run both.
- Bicep: infra-bicep/ — run cd infra-bicep && azd up
- Terraform: infra-terraform/ — run cd infra-terraform && azd up
Two hooks fire automatically during azd up (defined in each variant's azure.yaml):
- preprovision → scripts/preflight-claude.ps1 / .sh — marketplace catalog + quota check, hard-fails early on missing offers or insufficient TPM.
- postprovision → scripts/configure-claude-code.ps1 / .sh — writes activator files + .vscode/settings.json + .claude/settings.json so Claude Code and the SDK target the new Foundry deployment via Entra ID.
One canonical catalog tool: ./Get-ClaudeCatalog.ps1. Zero-required-params. Run with -Latest for the newest generation per family.
One verifier: scripts/verify-claude-code.ps1 — end-to-end smoke test (-SkipClaudeCall for config-only, -RunPythonSample for full SDK round trip).

Read the full file on GitHub · 58 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

13d ago Changed · +1 lines · +35 tokens per session d9410e7e2909
2mo ago First seen · 57 lines · 1,668 tokens per session scan B 9f0c3b0589d9

Subscribe to this mod's changes

claude copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository Azure-Samples/claude (41 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,703 tokens to every session, about $0.0068 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

ai-agents anthropic azd-templates azure-ai-foundry bicep claude

claude copilot-instructions.md next to 6 instructions from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
claude copilot-instructions.mdAzure-Samples/claude	Instructions file	41	5d ago	MIT	B	1,703	GitHub Copilot
vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	9,719	GitHub Copilot
next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js	Instructions file	143k	today	MIT	A	7,461	Codex, OpenCode
langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain	Instructions file	149k	yesterday	MIT	A	4,680	Codex, OpenCode
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	5,516	GitHub Copilot
vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	3,093	GitHub Copilot
deepseek-harness AGENTS.mddeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness	Instructions file	274k	2d ago	MIT	A	4,313	Codex, OpenCode

claude: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot