AgentRC prepares repositories for AI coding agents by analyzing their code and generating project-specific instructions, evaluations, and development configuration. It is used through a CLI, VS Code extension, or CI pipeline to measure AI readiness, keep context useful, and detect drift; the catalogue entries support these repository-preparation workflows.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/agentrc. 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/agentrc/main/.github/instructions/vscode-extension.instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/agentrcWrote 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/agentrc/vscode-extension)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/agentrc/vscode-extension"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/agentrc/vscode-extension/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/agentrc/vscode-extension"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/agentrc/vscode-extension.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 | $0.00441 | $0.00441 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00176 | $0.00176 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00088 | $0.00088 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00044 | $0.00044 |
Grade A, and why
agentrc vscode-extension.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.
What it actually says
VS Code Extension Development
The extension lives in vscode-extension/ and surfaces AgentRC CLI commands in VS Code.
Build
cd vscode-extension
node esbuild.mjs # CJS bundle → out/extension.js
node esbuild.mjs --watch # watch mode
npx tsc --noEmit # typecheck
Output is CommonJS (not ESM like the CLI). Bundled with esbuild, not tsup.
Service Reuse via Path Alias
The extension imports shared services through the @agentrc/core/* path alias:
// vscode-extension/src/services.ts — re-export layer
export { analyzeRepo } from "@agentrc/core/services/analyzer";
This works because tsconfig.json maps @agentrc/core to ../packages/core/src and esbuild
resolves it at bundle time. Never duplicate core service logic in the extension.
Git Integration
- Use the built-in
vscode.gitextension API — never import or bundlesimple-git. - The extension declares
"extensionDependencies": ["vscode.git"]. - Types are vendored in
src/git.d.tsfrom the upstream VS Code repo. gitUtils.tsfinds the deepest matching repo for monorepo support.
Command Pattern
Commands in vscode-extension/src/commands/ are thin wrappers:
- Call shared service from
services.ts - Update tree providers / status bar
- Show VS Code notifications for results
Key Differences from CLI
| Aspect | CLI | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Module format | ESM | CommonJS |
| Bundler | tsup | esbuild |
| Git library | simple-git | vscode.git API |
| Output | stdout/stderr | VS Code UI |
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 Changed · +1 lines · +6 tokens per session 7d77c60518b7
- 1mo ago First seen · 55 lines · 435 tokens per session scan A 100ff00b5e8e
agentrc vscode-extension.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/agentrc (1,109 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 441 tokens to every session, about $0.0018 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.