hardened-images: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/copilot-instructions.md

hardened-images copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from konstruktoid/hardened-images. It costs 1,138 tokens per session, scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A set of repository instructions for GitHub Copilot in a project that builds hardened Ubuntu server images. GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant, while Packer and Ansible are tools used to automate image building and server configuration.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when changing Packer templates, shell scripts, Ansible-related configuration, or build checks for Azure, QEMU, or other Ubuntu image outputs.
Why use it?
It gives coding suggestions a consistent security and maintenance baseline. It helps preserve hardening requirements and avoid unreproducible external dependencies.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file.

This is konstruktoid/hardened-images's own configuration. It tells GitHub Copilot how to work on hardened-images 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 hardened-images configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to konstruktoid/hardened-images. 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/konstruktoid/hardened-images/master/.github/copilot-instructions.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/konstruktoid/hardened-images

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.

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README.md
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Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/konstruktoid/hardened-images/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/konstruktoid/hardened-images/copilot-instructions/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 hardened-images copilot-instructions.md

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/konstruktoid/hardened-images/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/konstruktoid/hardened-images/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 1,138 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,138 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 $0.01138 $0.01138
Opus 5 $0.00569 $0.00569
Sonnet 5 $0.00228 $0.00228
Haiku 4.5 $0.00114 $0.00114

Measured 5d ago against content hash 2fa0be0cf0ba, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

hardened-images copilot-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 5d 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-pipe-to-shell patterns in build/provisioning scripts.
.github/copilot-instructions.md · 101 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 101 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Repository Instructions for GitHub Copilot

This repository builds hardened Ubuntu server images (Azure VM image, QEMU .qcow2, and formerly .ova) using Packer and the konstruktoid/ansible-collection-hardening Ansible collection. Prefer secure-by-default, operationally reliable, maintainable, and auditable changes.

Mission and baseline

  • Preserve existing hardening intent unless an explicit deviation is requested.
  • Bias recommendations toward CIS Benchmarks, DISA STIG guidance, and CMMC-oriented practices.
  • Prefer minimal, reviewable, reversible diffs.
  • The build must remain reproducible without external dependencies beyond the official Ubuntu ISO, Packer, QEMU/OVMF, and the pinned hardening collection version — do not introduce hidden network fetches or unpinned tooling.

Engineering expectations

  • Packer templates (*.pkr.hcl) should stay declarative; keep provisioning logic in scripts/ or config/local.yml rather than inline in HCL.
  • Shell scripts (build_box.sh, azure_vars_export, scripts/*.sh) must pass shellcheck (enforced via .pre-commit-config.yaml) and use set -euo pipefail (or equivalent explicit error handling).
  • Favor maintainability over clever one-liners.
  • Ansible usage in config/local.yml should stay module-first and use FQCN (ansible.builtin.*) — see .github/instructions/ansible.instructions.md.

Security requirements

  • Never hardcode secrets, credentials, keys, tokens, or passwords. Azure credentials (ARM_*) must never be persisted to disk or committed.
  • Treat SSH access, the ubuntu account/password, sudo, PAM, audit/logging, firewall (ufw), mounts, sysctl, services, and authentication settings as high-sensitivity areas — these are set by the konstruktoid.hardening roles config/local.yml selects and by the vars it passes them.
  • The ephemeral Packer provisioning SSH keypair must always be stripped by scripts/cleanup.sh before a build finishes; do not weaken or bypass that cleanup step.
  • Avoid security relaxations (e.g. sshd_password_authentication, dropping a role from config/local.yml, disabling audit rules) unless explicitly requested and documented with rationale.

Read the full file on GitHub · 101 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. 5d ago Changed · +13 tokens per session 2fa0be0cf0ba
  2. 10d ago First seen · 101 lines · 1,125 tokens per session scan A a7795d5817c1

Subscribe to this mod's changes

hardened-images copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository konstruktoid/hardened-images (90 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 1,138 tokens to every session, about $0.0057 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.

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