azure-dev documentation.instructions.md

Repository instructions for maintaining Azure Developer CLI documentation. They describe where different kinds of documentation belong and when code changes require updates.

In plain words
What is it for?
Keep guides, reference pages, concepts, and architecture documents organized and synchronized with the codebase.
Why use it?
They reduce outdated or misplaced documentation when commands, flags, environment variables, behavior, or extensions change.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add instructions/azure/azure-dev/documentation
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 608 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 608 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00608 $0.00608
Opus 5 $0.00304 $0.00304
Sonnet 5 $0.00122 $0.00122
Haiku 4.5 $0.00061 $0.00061

Measured yesterday against content hash 15979e2b37b4, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

azure-dev documentation.instructions.md scanned grade A with 0 findings 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 yesterday.

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.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.github/instructions/documentation.instructions.md · 48 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 48 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Documentation Maintenance

This repository uses a structured documentation system under docs/ at the repo root. When making changes to the codebase, keep the documentation current.

Documentation Structure

docs/
├── README.md          — Documentation index and navigation
├── concepts/          — Core mental models, terminology, feature lifecycle
├── guides/            — Task-oriented how-tos for contributors
├── reference/         — Schemas, flags, environment variables, feature status
└── architecture/      — System overviews, design context, ADRs

When to Update Documentation

  • New command or flag: Update docs/guides/adding-a-new-command.md if the pattern changes; update docs/reference/feature-status.md with the new feature's stage.
  • User-visible behavior change: Update relevant command docs/help when behavior affects workflows, especially --no-prompt or CI/script semantics.
  • New environment variable: Add it to cli/azd/docs/environment-variables.md (canonical), and keep docs/reference/environment-variables.md in sync when appropriate.
  • New extension capability: Update docs/architecture/extension-framework.md and docs/guides/creating-an-extension.md.
  • Feature stage change: Update docs/reference/feature-status.md when a feature graduates (alpha → beta → stable).
  • New concept or term: Add it to docs/concepts/glossary.md.
  • Architecture decision: Create a new ADR using the template at docs/architecture/adr-template.md.
  • New hosting target or language: Update docs/reference/feature-status.md and docs/concepts/glossary.md.
  • Product rebrand or compatibility name: Use the current product name in user-facing prose, while preserving legacy/internal identifiers only where required by code, telemetry, APIs, or compatibility.

Documentation Placement Guide

Content type Location
Term or concept definition docs/concepts/glossary.md
Contributor how-to docs/guides/
Configuration reference docs/reference/
System design or ADR docs/architecture/
Implementation design details cli/azd/docs/design/
Extension development details cli/azd/docs/extensions/
Code style standards cli/azd/docs/style-guidelines/

Read the full file on GitHub · 48 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.

  1. yesterday First seen · 48 lines · 608 tokens per session scan A 15979e2b37b4

Subscribe to this mod's changes

azure-dev documentation.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository Azure/azure-dev (567 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 608 tokens to every session, about $0.0030 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other instructions, from other repositories