What is agentrc vscode-extension.instructions.md?

A set of project instructions for developing a VS Code extension, an add-on that extends Microsoft’s code editor. It covers building the extension, reusing shared command-line code, and connecting to Git through VS Code’s built-in support.

Use it when changing the VS Code extension, running its build or type checks, adding commands, sharing CLI services, or working with Git repositories.

It keeps the extension’s code aligned with the project’s existing services and build setup. It also provides project-specific rules for Git support and monorepos, which are repositories containing several related projects.

agentrc vscode-extension.instructions.md — Instructions file by microsoft

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods

npx agentmods add instructions/microsoft/agentrc/vscode-extension

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/agentrc

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 435 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 435 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.

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	$0.00435	$0.00435
Opus 5	$0.00217	$0.00217
Sonnet 5	$0.00087	$0.00087
Haiku 4.5	$0.00044	$0.00044

Measured 2d ago against content hash 100ff00b5e8e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

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 2d 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/vscode-extension.instructions.md · 55 lines

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 CLI services through a agentrc/* path alias:

// vscode-extension/src/services.ts — re-export layer
export { analyzeRepo } from "agentrc/services/analyzer.js";

This works because tsconfig.json maps "agentrc/*": ["../src/*"] and esbuild resolves it at bundle time. Never duplicate CLI service logic in the extension.

Git Integration

Use the built-in vscode.git extension API — never import or bundle simple-git.
The extension declares "extensionDependencies": ["vscode.git"].
Types are vendored in src/git.d.ts from the upstream VS Code repo.
gitUtils.ts finds 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

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.

2d ago First seen · 55 lines · 435 tokens per session scan A 100ff00b5e8e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

agentrc vscode-extension.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/agentrc (1,035 stars, last pushed 6d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 435 tokens to every session, about $0.0022 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 2026-08-30.

Git and workflow

codex AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md instructions for openai/codex, covering rust/codex-rs, the codex-core crate, code review rules, crate api surface and model visible context.

openai/codex · 5,182 tokens

buildNext

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 · 6,785 tokens

agentrc vscode-extension.instructions.md