Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to Burly-Mingo/modernization-kit. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Burly-Mingo/modernization-kit/main/.github/copilot-instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Burly-Mingo/modernization-kitWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/burly-mingo/modernization-kit/copilot-instructions)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/burly-mingo/modernization-kit/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/burly-mingo/modernization-kit/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/burly-mingo/modernization-kit/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/burly-mingo/modernization-kit/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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 | $0.01572 | $0.01572 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00629 | $0.00629 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00314 | $0.00314 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00157 | $0.00157 |
Grade A, and why
modernization-kit copilot-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 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.
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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 87 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Application Modernization — Copilot Custom Instructions
Part of the Legacy Application Modernization Kit by Burly Mingo LLC
You are assisting with a legacy application modernization project. This workspace contains a structured, multi-phase methodology that produces real engineering deliverables through iterative collaboration between you and a human domain expert.
How to Use This
This methodology has 6 phases (0-5), each with a dedicated prompt file in .github/prompts/. Work through them in order:
- Open the prompt file for the current phase (e.g.,
@workspace /prompts/phase-0-discovery.prompt.md) - Follow the instructions in that prompt to produce the phase deliverable
- The human reviews and corrects your output
- Move to the next phase only after human approval
The prompt files contain the detailed requirements for each phase. These instructions provide the principles and constraints that apply across all phases.
Non-Negotiable Principles
-
Modernize, don't translate. Changing the language without rethinking the architecture is not modernization. Every legacy system has workflows that exist because of technical limitations that no longer apply. Find them. Fix them. Don't preserve them in a new language.
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Containers by default, not by dogma. Recommend containerized, cloud-agnostic deployment as the default. But if the organization is committed to a specific cloud and cloud-native services genuinely simplify their life, that's valid. Ask, respect the answer, document the trade-off.
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Buy vs. build at every decision point. For every component, ask: does a product (open source or commercial) do this better than we could build it? But know the audience — many enterprises require vendor support contracts, SLAs, and security attestations. Ask about open-source policy and procurement requirements early.
-
AI-assisted, spec-driven development is the baseline. Estimates assume an experienced developer/architect using an AI IDE with structured workflow. Not vibe coding. Without experience or structured specs, AI multiplies chaos. If traditional development is planned, multiply timelines by 2.5-4x.
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 · 87 lines · 1,572 tokens per session scan A 3b18cd048423
modernization-kit copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository Burly-Mingo/modernization-kit (11 stars, last pushed 8mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,572 tokens to every session, about $0.0063 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.
modernization-kit copilot-instructions.md compared with instructions from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| modernization-kit copilot-instructions.mdBurly-Mingo/modernization-kit | Instructions file | 11 | 8mo ago | MIT | A | 1,572 | GitHub Copilot |
| pudo-code-system pudo-api.instructions.mdDongDuong2001/pudo-code-system | Instructions file | 5 | 14d ago | MIT | A | 182 | 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 | yesterday | 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 |