copilot-collections copilot-instructions.md

Copilot Instructions for canonical/copilot-collections

This repository is the "Toolkit" for centralized context management for GitHub Copilot across the Canonical ecosystem. It distributes standardized Copilot Custom Instructions and Prompts to other repositories via a subscription model.

High Level Details

• Type: Utility/Toolkit.
• Languages: Bash (logic), YAML (configuration), Markdown (content).
• Core Function: Individual repositories define a .copilot-collections.yaml file listing "Collections" they need. This toolkit's scripts (install_collections.sh) parse that config and sync the corresponding Markdown files from assets/ or groups/<team>/ into the consumer's .github/ directory.
• Supported Artifacts: Custom Instructions, Prompts, and Agent Skills.
• Key Tools: yq (YAML processing), shellcheck (Script linting).

Project Layout

Directories

• collections.yaml: The ROOT configuration file defining "Core" collections.
• assets/: Contains source Markdown files for core instructions, prompts, and agents.
  • instructions/: Custom instruction files organized by category.
  • prompts/: Prompt template files.
  • agents/: Agent definition files.
• skills/: Contains core agent skill directories (each containing SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter).
• groups/: Contains team-specific collections.
  • Each subfolder (e.g., groups/charm-tech/) acts as a mini-repo with its own collections.yaml and asset folder.
• scripts/: Contains the logic binaries.
  • install_collections.sh: The main engine that reads config and copies files.
  • validate_collections.sh: Validates referential integrity of collections.yaml files.
  • local_sync.sh: A wrapper for local usage by consumers.
• tests/: Contains test scripts for the bash logic.
• .github/workflows/:
  • test-toolkit.yaml: The CI pipeline for this repo.
  • auto_update_collections.yaml: A reusable workflow imported by consumer repos to auto-update their instructions.