What is mcp-server copilot-instructions.md?

A set of development rules for using GitHub Copilot in the Mapbox MCP Server project. GitHub Copilot suggests code, while the project provides Mapbox-based location, search, routing, and map tools to AI applications.

Use it when reviewing Copilot suggestions, handling credentials, following the project's TypeScript and testing standards, and adding or changing code in the Mapbox server.

It reduces the risk of accepting unreviewed code, exposing secrets, or introducing changes that fail the project's checks. It also sets expectations for tests and documentation.

How mapbox/mcp-server configures GitHub Copilot

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to mapbox/mcp-server. 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/mapbox/mcp-server/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mapbox/mcp-server

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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/copilot-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/copilot-instructions)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/mapbox/mcp-server/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 484 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 484 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00484	$0.00484
Opus 5.5	$0.00194	$0.00194
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00097	$0.00097
Haiku 4.5	$0.00048	$0.00048

Measured 1mo ago against content hash 97d49afe144e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

mcp-server 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 1mo 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 · 58 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 58 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Copilot Guidelines for Mapbox MCP Server

This document defines responsible use of GitHub Copilot in this repository. Copilot is a productivity tool that must work within our engineering standards.

Core Principles

1. Review, Don't Auto-Accept

Always review Copilot suggestions before accepting
Understand first - only use code you fully comprehend
No blind copy-paste - adapt suggestions to project context
Iterate - use suggestions as starting points, not final solutions

2. Security First

Never accept suggestions with hardcoded secrets, tokens, or credentials
Review carefully any code handling sensitive data
Environment variables - ensure secrets use .env files, never committed

3. Quality Standards

All Copilot code must comply with standards in CLAUDE.md and docs/engineering_standards.md
Pre-commit hooks will enforce linting, formatting, and TypeScript strictness
If Copilot suggests patterns inconsistent with the codebase, reject and write manually

4. Testing & Documentation

Include unit tests for all Copilot-generated features or fixes
Add or update JSDoc comments as you would for hand-written code
Update README.md or CHANGELOG.md if user-facing changes

5. Collaboration

All Copilot code goes through standard PR review process
Mention in PR description if significant portion is Copilot-generated
Provide feedback if Copilot produces poor/unsafe suggestions

When to Avoid Copilot

Critical business logic - prefer hand-written code with thorough review
Security-sensitive code - authentication, authorization, data validation
Legal/compliance code - licensing, terms of service, privacy policies
Architecture decisions - let humans make strategic choices

Learning from the Codebase

Copilot learns patterns from existing code. This codebase has strong conventions:

Dependency injection for testability (see src/tools/)
HttpPipeline for all HTTP requests (see src/utils/httpPipeline.ts)
Consistent tool structure extending MapboxApiBasedTool

Read the full file on GitHub · 58 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.

1mo ago First seen · 58 lines · 484 tokens per session scan A 97d49afe144e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

mcp-server copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository mapbox/mcp-server (363 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 484 tokens to every session, about $0.0019 per session on Opus 5.5. 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.

Security

vscode buildNext.instructions.md

Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).

microsoft/vscode · 9,715 tokens

mcp-server: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot