mcp-guide: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot Instructions for Code Reviews

Code Review Formatting for AI Agents

When providing code reviews or feedback in this repository, format your responses to be AI-agent friendly rather than human-web-browser friendly.

Principles

1. Plain Text First: Use plain text and markdown instead of HTML, CSS, or heavily formatted web content
2. Copy-Paste Ready: Format entire reviews so they can be copied and pasted directly into AI agents without reformatting
3. Clear Structure: Use markdown headings, lists, and code blocks for organization
4. Minimal Formatting: Avoid complex tables, purely decorative elements, or special characters that break when copied as plain text

Format Guidelines

DO: Use Simple Markdown Code Blocks

# Issue: Variable name is unclear
# Fix:
def process_user_data(user_id: str) -> dict:
    return fetch_user(user_id)

DO: Provide File Paths and Line References

File: src/handlers.py Lines: 45-52 Issue: Missing error handling

# Current code:
result = api.call()

# Suggested fix:
try:
    result = api.call()
except APIError as e:
    logger.error(f"API call failed: {e}")
    raise

DO: Use Plain Lists for Multiple Issues

Issues Found:

1. src/utils.py:23 - Missing type hint for process_data function
2. src/models.py:67 - Potential null pointer in get_user_name()
3. tests/test_api.py:12 - Test should verify error message content

DON'T: Use HTML/CSS Formatting

<!-- Avoid this -->
<div style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">
  <p>Issue found in line 45</p>
</div>

DON'T: Use Complex Tables or Formatting

Avoid:

• Decorative symbols that may not copy correctly (assume utf-8)
• Complex nested tables
• Inline HTML styling
• Rich text formatting that doesn't translate to plain text
• Special Unicode characters that break in plain text contexts
• Bold/italic markdown in excess (use sparingly only for headers)

Review Comment Structure