copilot-ralph copilot-instructions.md

Project-specific instructions for GitHub Copilot when working on Ralph, a Go tool with a command-line interface and terminal interface.

In plain words
What is it for?
Following specifications, choosing the right project layers, writing Go code in the project’s style, handling errors, documenting exported code, and creating table-driven tests.
Why use it?
They give an agent the project’s required development process, code conventions, architecture boundaries, and testing expectations before it changes code.

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/jandedobbeleer/copilot-ralph/copilot-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/copilot-ralph

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 1,216 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,216 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 $0.01216 $0.01216
Opus 5 $0.00608 $0.00608
Sonnet 5 $0.00243 $0.00243
Haiku 4.5 $0.00122 $0.00122

Measured yesterday against content hash ce22075c4b74, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

copilot-ralph 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 yesterday.

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 · 171 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 171 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Copilot Instructions for Ralph

This file provides quick reference instructions for GitHub Copilot when working on Ralph. For comprehensive details, see AGENTS.md.

Project Overview

Ralph is an iterative AI development loop tool built in Go, using:

  • CLI: Cobra for commands
  • TUI: Bubble Tea for terminal UI
  • AI: GitHub Copilot SDK
  • Testing: testify for assertions

Key Principles

1. Spec-Driven Development

  • Read specs first: All specs are in /specs/ directory
  • Implement per spec: Follow specifications exactly
  • Update spec first: If requirements change, update spec before code

2. Code Style

See Go-specific instructions for detailed Go conventions including:

  • No else statements - Use early returns
  • Error wrapping - Always use %w
  • Table-driven tests - Multiple test cases in one test
  • Bubble Tea patterns - Model-View-Update (MVU)
  • Package documentation - Document all exported symbols

3. Architecture

CLI Layer (cmd/ralph, internal/cli)
    ↓
TUI Layer (internal/tui)
    ↓
Core Layer (internal/core)
    ↓
SDK Layer (internal/sdk)

Dependency Rules:

  • CLI depends on TUI and Core
  • TUI depends on Core
  • Core depends on SDK
  • SDK has no internal dependencies
  • No circular dependencies

4. Bubble Tea Pattern

All TUI components use Model-View-Update. See golang.md for detailed patterns:

  • Model - State and data
  • Init - Initialize and return initial commands
  • Update - Handle messages and update state (no else statements!)
  • View - Render to string

5. Testing

  • Unit tests: Test individual functions
  • Mock dependencies: Use interfaces
  • Table-driven: Multiple test cases in one test
  • Integration tests: Guard with environment checks

File Structure

copilot-ralph/
├── cmd/ralph/              # Entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── cli/                # Commands
│   ├── tui/                # Terminal UI
│   │   ├── wizard/         # Initialization wizard
│   │   ├── runner/         # Loop display
│   │   ├── styles/         # Styling
│   │   └── keys/           # Key bindings
│   ├── core/               # Business logic
│   └── sdk/                # Copilot SDK wrapper
├── pkg/version/            # Version info
└── specs/                  # Specifications (READ THESE!)

Read the full file on GitHub · 171 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. yesterday First seen · 171 lines · 1,216 tokens per session scan A ce22075c4b74

Subscribe to this mod's changes

copilot-ralph copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository JanDeDobbeleer/copilot-ralph (55 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,216 tokens to every session, about $0.0061 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.

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