apex-accelerator: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/instructions/vendor-prompting.instructions.md

apex-accelerator vendor-prompting.instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator. It costs 1,488 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A rule set for writing prompts for Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT-5.6-Terra agents. It includes vendor-specific requirements and a validator for checking them.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when authoring or reviewing agent prompts that target Claude or GPT-5.6-Terra.
Why use it?
It helps catch prompt patterns that can break an agent or violate the expected format for its model.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file. Also seen: mentions subagents; mentions Codex.

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 →

Needs its repository: it runs a file that does not travel with it, so clone the repository first. The line is node tools/scripts/validate-agents.mjs \.

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/vendor-prompting.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 vendor-prompting.instructions.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for apex-accelerator vendor-prompting.instructions.md

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator/vendor-prompting.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 1,488 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,488 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. 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 $0.01488 $0.01488
Opus 5 $0.00744 $0.00744
Sonnet 5 $0.00298 $0.00298
Haiku 4.5 $0.00149 $0.00149

Measured 6d ago against content hash 3c21f9259678, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

apex-accelerator vendor-prompting.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 6d 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/instructions/vendor-prompting.instructions.md · 134 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 134 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Vendor Prompting Rules

This file is the enforcement thin layer. For full audit guidance, examples, and source citations, load the vendor-prompting skill.

The machine-readable rule registry is rules.json. Validator: npm run lint:vendor-prompting.

Hard rules (errors)

These break runtime if violated:

  • frontmatter-model-style-001.agent.md must use array form for model: (e.g., model: ["Claude Opus 4.7"]). .prompt.md must use string form. Bareword form for labels with parenthetical qualifiers (e.g., model: Claude Foo (suffix)) breaks YAML.

Vendor rules

Anthropic Claude (claude-opus, claude-sonnet, claude-haiku)

Applies when frontmatter model: matches claude (case-insensitive).

  • legacy-003 — Body > 350 lines requires <context_awareness>.
  • legacy-004 — Research agents (Architect, IaC Planner, Context Optimizer) include <investigate_before_answering>.
  • claude-oneshot-001 — ONE-SHOT agents (Requirements, Challenger subagent) MUST NOT include <investigate_before_answering>.
  • claude-no-prefill-001 — MUST NOT instruct prefilling the assistant turn ("prefill the assistant", "assistant prefill", "prefilled response"). Prefill is no longer supported on Claude 4.6+.
  • claude-output-contract-001 — Artifact-producing agents (handoffs reference agent-output/) include <output_contract>.

OpenAI GPT-5.6-Terra

Applies when frontmatter model: matches gpt-5.6-terra.

  • gpt55-skeleton-001 — Required H1 sections present (any order): # Goal, # Success criteria, # Constraints, # Output, # Stop rules. # Personality only on user-facing Orchestrator agents.
  • gpt55-stop-rules-non-empty-001# Stop rules body must contain ≥1 non-blank line.
  • gpt-no-claude-xml-001 — MUST NOT contain Claude-specific XML blocks (<investigate_before_answering>, <context_awareness>, <scope_fencing>, <empty_result_recovery>, <subagent_budget>, <output_contract>).
  • personality-scoping-001# Personality block forbidden on internal pipeline agents (info-only).

Read the full file on GitHub · 134 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. 6d ago First seen · 134 lines · 1,488 tokens per session scan A 3c21f9259678

Subscribe to this mod's changes

apex-accelerator vendor-prompting.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository jonathan-vella/apex-accelerator (50 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,488 tokens to every session, about $0.0074 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 2026-09-03.

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