apex-accelerator: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/instructions/iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md

apex-accelerator iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator. It costs 1,161 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A set of Terraform rules for defining Azure infrastructure as code, meaning cloud resources described in files instead of created manually.

In plain words
What is it for?
It guides the creation and review of Terraform files for Azure resources, including their structure, providers, backend, policy checks, and security settings.
Why use it?
It helps templates follow Azure policies, naming rules, security requirements, provider versions, and approved state storage.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file. Also seen: mentions AGENTS.md.

This is jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator's own configuration. It tells GitHub Copilot how to work on apex-accelerator itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything apex-accelerator configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/main/.github/instructions/iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for apex-accelerator iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

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Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/iac-terraform-best-practices.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 1,161 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,161 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.01161 $0.01161
Opus 5 $0.00580 $0.00580
Sonnet 5 $0.00232 $0.00232
Haiku 4.5 $0.00116 $0.00116

Measured 11d ago against content hash 1c37eab6df78, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

apex-accelerator iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md scanned grade A with 1 finding 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 11d 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -sf https://registry.terraform.io/v1/modules/Azure/avm-res-{path}/azurerm/versions \
.github/instructions/iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md · 123 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 123 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Terraform Best Practices

Region, tags, AVM-first mandate, unique suffix, and security baseline are defined in AGENTS.md (always loaded). This file covers Terraform-specific patterns. Policy constraints (04-governance-constraints.md) always take precedence.

Security

Azure Policy always wins. Code adapts to policy, never the reverse. See references/iac-security-baseline.md for shared security rules and references/iac-policy-compliance.md for the full policy compliance workflow including azurePropertyPath → Terraform argument translation tables.

Policy Compliance

Cross-reference 04-governance-constraints.json before writing templates. Use azurePropertyPath (not bicepPropertyPath) for Terraform argument mapping. See references/iac-policy-compliance.md for the full checklist, resource type mapping table, and property path examples.

Provider and Backend

Rule Standard
Provider Pin azurerm to ~> 4.0, random ~> 3.0
Terraform >= 1.9
State backend Azure Storage Account — never HCP Terraform Cloud

Never use terraform { cloud {} } or reference TFE_TOKEN.

File Structure

File Purpose
main.tf Root module resources and module calls
variables.tf / outputs.tf Input/output declarations
providers.tf / versions.tf Provider and required_providers blocks
locals.tf Local value computations
backend.tf Remote state backend configuration

Naming

Singletons: .this. Multiples: .app, .data. Lowercase with hyphens. CAF abbreviations (see AGENTS.md for the full table).

Read the full file on GitHub · 123 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. 11d ago First seen · 123 lines · 1,161 tokens per session scan A 1c37eab6df78

Subscribe to this mod's changes

apex-accelerator iac-terraform-best-practices.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator (50 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,161 tokens to every session, about $0.0058 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). 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