Microsoft Agent Framework is a multi-language framework for building, coordinating, and running AI agents and workflows in Python and .NET. Teams use it for agent systems that need orchestration, collaboration, durability, observability, governance, or human involvement beyond a single prompt or chat loop. Catalogue add-ons provide skills and instructions for working with the framework.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/agent-framework. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/agent-framework/main/.github/copilot-instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/agent-frameworkWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/agent-framework/copilot-instructions)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/agent-framework/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/agent-framework/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/agent-framework/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/agent-framework/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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 | $0.00376 | $0.00376 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00150 | $0.00150 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00075 | $0.00075 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00038 | $0.00038 |
Grade A, and why
agent-framework 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 7d 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.
What it actually says
GitHub Copilot Instructions
Microsoft Agent Framework - a multi-language framework for building, orchestrating, and deploying AI agents.
Repository Structure
python/- Python implementation → see python/AGENTS.mddotnet/- C#/.NET implementation → see dotnet/AGENTS.mddocs/- Design documents and architectural decision recordsskills/- Public, installable Agent Skills for developers using Agent Framework
Public Consumer Skills
The skills under skills/ are distribution artifacts for developers building Agent Framework applications. They are
not project skills for contributors working in this repository:
- Do not load or invoke them as instructions for normal Agent Framework repository work.
- Keep them outside
.github/skills,.agents/skills, and.claude/skillsso coding agents do not auto-discover them. - When a change affects public APIs, packages, samples, configuration, evaluation, integrations, or hosting guidance, review and update the corresponding consumer skill as maintained product documentation.
- Read a consumer skill during repository work only when that maintenance check is relevant; do not let its standalone application defaults override repository-specific instructions.
Architectural Decision Records (ADRs)
ADRs in docs/decisions/ capture significant design decisions and their rationale. They document considered alternatives, trade-offs, and the reasoning behind choices.
Templates:
adr-template.md- Full template with detailed sectionsadr-short-template.md- Abbreviated template for simpler decisions
When proposing architectural changes, create an ADR to capture options considered and the decision rationale. See docs/decisions/README.md for the full process.
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.
- 7d ago Changed · +13 lines · +165 tokens per session 6a9bf6ec7b67
- 2mo ago First seen · 20 lines · 211 tokens per session scan A 0da50ae6b9e4
agent-framework copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/agent-framework (14,368 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 376 tokens to every session, about $0.0015 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.
Other instructions, from other repositories
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).
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, cache eligibility and rollout and applying the notice (cutover).
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.
vscode copilot-instructions.md
Copilot instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code copilot instructions, project overview, root folders, core architecture (src/ folder) and built-in extensions (extensions/ folder).
deepseek-harness AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness, covering agents.md, pre-stable apis and released session data, repository layout, commands and host sandbox failures.