What is data-api-builder copilot-instructions.md?

A set of project instructions for Data API Builder, an open-source tool that creates REST and GraphQL APIs for databases. It also documents the C#/.NET project structure, supported databases, MCP tools, and development workflow.

Use it when developing, testing, or navigating Data API Builder and its command-line tool, database connections, API services, and GraphQL components.

It gives a coding agent the project context needed to make changes consistently and use the right build and test approach.

How Azure/data-api-builder configures GitHub Copilot

About the project

Data API builder is an open-source, no-code engine that turns databases into CRUD REST, GraphQL, and MCP endpoints. Developers run it in containers on cloud or on-premises environments to expose data through APIs.

Azure/data-api-builder · 1,538 stars · on GitHub · aka.ms

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to Azure/data-api-builder. 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/data-api-builder/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Azure/data-api-builder

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/data-api-builder/copilot-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/azure/data-api-builder/copilot-instructions)

Your own site

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

Per session 2,070 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 2,070 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan C 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	$0.02070	$0.02070
Opus 5.5	$0.00828	$0.00828
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00414	$0.00414
Haiku 4.5	$0.00207	$0.00207

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 3194fe6c4596, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

data-api-builder copilot-instructions.md scanned grade C 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 2mo 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.

Reaches for credential fileshighPrivilege escalation

SSH keys, cloud credentials, git-credentials, .npmrc, /etc/shadow: reading these is how a config file becomes a credential leak.

git config --global user.signingkey ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 252 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 252 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Data API builder (DAB) - Copilot Instructions

Project Overview

Data API builder (DAB) is an open-source, no-code tool that creates secure, full-featured REST, GraphQL endpoints for databases. It's a CRUD data API engine that runs in a container—on Azure, any other cloud, or on-premises. It also supports creation of DML and Custom MCP tools to build a SQL MCP Server backed by a SQL database.

Key Technologies

Language: C# / .NET
.NET Version: .NET 10.0 (see global.json)
Supported Databases: Azure SQL, SQL Server, SQLDW, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL
API Types: REST, GraphQL, MCP
Deployment: Cross-platform (Azure, AWS, GCP, on-premises)

Project Structure

data-api-builder/
├── src/
│   ├── Auth/                        # Authentication logic
│   ├── Cli/                         # Command-line interface (dab CLI)
│   ├── Cli.Tests/                   # CLI tests
│   ├── Config/                      # Configuration handling
│   ├── Core/                        # Core engine components
│   ├── Service/                     # Main DAB service/runtime
│   ├── Service.GraphQLBuilder/      # GraphQL schema builder
│   ├── Service.Tests/               # Integration tests
│   └── Azure.DataApiBuilder.sln     # Main solution file
├── config-generators/               # Config file generation helpers
├── docs/                            # Documentation
├── samples/                         # Sample configurations and projects
├── schemas/                         # JSON schemas for config validation
├── scripts/                         # Build and utility scripts
└── templates/                       # Project templates

Building and Testing

Prerequisites

.NET 10.0 SDK or later
Database server for testing (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Cosmos DB)

Building the Project

# Build the entire solution
dotnet build src/Azure.DataApiBuilder.sln

# Clean and rebuild
dotnet clean src/Azure.DataApiBuilder.sln
dotnet build src/Azure.DataApiBuilder.sln

Read the full file on GitHub · 252 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.

2mo ago First seen · 252 lines · 2,070 tokens per session scan C 3194fe6c4596

Subscribe to this mod's changes

data-api-builder copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository Azure/data-api-builder (1,538 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 2,070 tokens to every session, about $0.0083 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (reaches for credential files). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Backend and APIs Databases DevOps and cloud Testing api azure graphql microsoft rest

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data-api-builder: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot