everything-copilot-cli copilot-instructions.md

A set of project instructions for GitHub Copilot CLI, an AI coding assistant that works from a terminal. It explains the repository's agents, skills, rules, file layout, and validation practices.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when maintaining a repository of Copilot agents, skills, rules, and tool configurations. It covers file conventions, commit style, directory structure, and checks to run before committing.
Why use it?
It gives Copilot consistent project context and rules, reducing errors such as misplaced files, inconsistent names, mixed concerns, or unvalidated changes.

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/drvoss/everything-copilot-cli/copilot-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/drvoss/everything-copilot-cli

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 936 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 936 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 $0.00936 $0.00936
Opus 5 $0.00468 $0.00468
Sonnet 5 $0.00187 $0.00187
Haiku 4.5 $0.00094 $0.00094

Measured 2d ago against content hash 0d2d1d12dd85, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

everything-copilot-cli 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 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.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 87 lines

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.

GitHub Copilot Instructions

Concise runtime instructions for GitHub Copilot. For the fuller human-facing reference guide, see COPILOT-INSTRUCTIONS.md in the repository root.


Project Context

This is everything-copilot-cli — a reference repository defining agents, skills, rules, orchestration patterns, and MCP configurations for GitHub Copilot CLI. Content is Markdown and JSON configuration, not application code.

Essential Rules

  1. Use YAML frontmatter in all agent, skill, and rule files
  2. Use kebab-case for all filenames (e.g., build-error-resolver.md)
  3. Use conventional commits (feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:)
  4. Include Co-authored-by trailer in commits when Copilot assists
  5. Run validation before committing: npm run validate && npm run lint:md && npm test
  6. Don't mix concerns — one agent/skill/rule per file, one topic per PR

Directory Structure

Directory Contents
agents/ Agent definitions with persona, tools, model, behavior
skills/ Source skill library. Each skill lives at skills/<category>/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
skills/copilot-exclusive/ Copilot-only capabilities such as plan mode, fleet, background agents, and session memory
skills/development/, skills/workflow/, skills/security/, skills/testing/, skills/documentation/, skills/product/, skills/content/ Portable domain skills grouped by category
rules/common/ Universal behavioral rules
rules/languages/ Language-specific coding standards
rules/frameworks/ Framework-specific guidance
orchestration/ Multi-agent coordination (patterns/, configs/, examples/, skills/, templates/)
contexts/ Execution context definitions
mcp-configs/ MCP server configurations
examples/ Complete example projects (nextjs-app/, python-api/, dotnet-webapp/, monorepo/)

Agent Type Selection

Use the right Copilot agent type for each task:

Read the full file on GitHub · 87 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 · 87 lines · 936 tokens per session scan A 0d2d1d12dd85

Subscribe to this mod's changes

everything-copilot-cli copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository drvoss/everything-copilot-cli (45 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 936 tokens to every session, about $0.0047 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 2026-08-30.

Related

Other instructions, from other repositories