custom_github_copilot_agent_builder agent-skills.instructions.md

A set of guidelines for creating Agent Skills, which are self-contained instruction folders that teach coding agents specialized tasks. Skills can include instructions, scripts, examples, templates, and reference material.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to design, organize, and document reusable skills for GitHub Copilot across VS Code, the Copilot CLI, and coding-agent workflows.
Why use it?
It helps make skills portable, focused, and available only when relevant. It also explains where project and personal skills are stored.

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/dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder/agent-skills
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 2,531 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 2,531 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 $0.02531 $0.02531
Opus 5 $0.01265 $0.01265
Sonnet 5 $0.00506 $0.00506
Haiku 4.5 $0.00253 $0.00253

Measured 2d ago against content hash c5548099a868, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

custom_github_copilot_agent_builder agent-skills.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 2d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

.github/instructions/agent-skills.instructions.md · 262 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 262 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Agent Skills File Guidelines

Instructions for creating effective and portable Agent Skills that enhance GitHub Copilot with specialized capabilities, workflows, and bundled resources.

What Are Agent Skills?

Agent Skills are self-contained folders with instructions and bundled resources that teach AI agents specialized capabilities. Unlike custom instructions (which define coding standards), skills enable task-specific workflows that can include scripts, examples, templates, and reference data.

Key characteristics:

  • Portable: Works across VS Code, Copilot CLI, and Copilot coding agent
  • Progressive loading: Only loaded when relevant to the user's request
  • Resource-bundled: Can include scripts, templates, examples alongside instructions
  • On-demand: Activated automatically based on prompt relevance

Directory Structure

Skills are stored in specific locations:

Location Scope Recommendation
.github/skills/<skill-name>/ Project/repository Recommended for project skills
.claude/skills/<skill-name>/ Project/repository Legacy, for backward compatibility
~/.github/skills/<skill-name>/ Personal (user-wide) Recommended for personal skills
~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/ Personal (user-wide) Legacy, for backward compatibility

Each skill must have its own subdirectory containing at minimum a SKILL.md file.

Required SKILL.md Format

Frontmatter (Required)

---
name: webapp-testing
description: Toolkit for testing local web applications using Playwright. Use when asked to verify frontend functionality, debug UI behavior, capture browser screenshots, check for visual regressions, or view browser console logs. Supports Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit browsers.
license: Complete terms in LICENSE.txt
---
Field Required Constraints
name Yes Lowercase, hyphens for spaces, max 64 characters (e.g., webapp-testing)
description Yes Clear description of capabilities AND use cases, max 1024 characters
license No Reference to LICENSE.txt (e.g., Complete terms in LICENSE.txt) or SPDX identifier

Read the full file on GitHub · 262 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. 2d ago First seen · 262 lines · 2,531 tokens per session scan A c5548099a868

Subscribe to this mod's changes

custom_github_copilot_agent_builder agent-skills.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository dhar174/custom_github_copilot_agent_builder (7 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 2,531 tokens to every session, about $0.0127 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 2026-08-31.

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