Agents-for-net: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/instructions/proactive-messaging.instructions.md

Agents-for-net proactive-messaging.instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from microsoft/Agents-for-net. It costs 791 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

Instructions for proactive messaging in Microsoft Agents for .NET, where an agent sends a message outside the user's current request. They describe saved conversation references, HTTP triggers, in-code calls, and the different turn pipelines used to send or continue a conversation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when implementing external triggers, scheduled or agent-initiated messages, conversation continuation, proactive HTTP endpoints, storage, or error handling.
Why use it?
They clarify which conversation data must be stored, which endpoint or method to call, and why a single message has less processing context than a continued conversation.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot ✓ vendor

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file.

This is microsoft/Agents-for-net's own configuration. It tells GitHub Copilot how to work on Agents-for-net 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 Agents-for-net configures →

About the project

Microsoft 365 Agents SDK is a C# and .NET software development kit for building agents that interact with users across Microsoft 365, Teams, Copilot Studio, Webchat, and selected third-party services. Developers use it to handle conversations, coordinate requests, generate responses, and enable collaboration between agents. The catalogue entries provide coding-agent instructions and agents for working with this SDK.

microsoft/Agents-for-net · 183 stars · on GitHub

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/Agents-for-net. 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/microsoft/Agents-for-net/main/.github/instructions/proactive-messaging.instructions.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/Agents-for-net

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

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Per session 791 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 791 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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00791 $0.00791
Opus 5.5 $0.00316 $0.00316
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00158 $0.00158
Haiku 4.5 $0.00079 $0.00079

Measured 27d ago against content hash 0cda6b170150, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Agents-for-net proactive-messaging.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 27d 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/proactive-messaging.instructions.md · 47 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 47 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Proactive Messaging Context

When working on proactive messaging, conversation continuation, or proactive HTTP endpoints, read docs/proactive-sequence-diagram.md for the full mermaid sequence diagrams covering all flows.

Key Design Points

  • Conversation storage is required for {conversationId} HTTP routes, which resolve the target from IStorage. Body-based HTTP routes and in-code overloads can receive a complete Conversation directly. Proactive.StoreConversationAsync persists Conversation (Claims + ConversationReference) under key proactive/conversations/{conversationId}.
  • Two invocation styles: HTTP endpoints (via MapAgentProactiveEndpoints) for external triggers, and in-code Proactive.ContinueConversationAsync / Proactive.SendActivityAsync for agent-initiated scenarios.
  • SendActivity is fire-and-send — it creates a minimal turn to deliver a single activity. ContinueConversation creates a full turn with TurnState, middleware, and optional token handling.
  • ProcessProactiveAsync on the adapter creates the full turn pipeline (state, middleware). This differs from the simpler ContinueConversationAsync on the adapter which only provides a raw TurnContext callback.
  • Exception handling — Exceptions inside proactive callbacks are captured via ExceptionDispatchInfo and re-thrown after the adapter call completes. Without this, exceptions in the background pipeline would be silently lost.
  • Token handling — [ContinueConversation(autoSignInHandlers: "me")] attribute triggers automatic token acquisition during proactive turns. If ProactiveOptions.FailOnUnsignedInConnections is true (default), UserNotSignedIn is thrown when tokens cannot be acquired.
  • HTTP query parameters are passed through as Activity.Value (dictionary) with ValueType = "application/vnd.microsoft.activity.continueconversation+json" on the continuation Event activity.
  • CreateConversation creates a new conversation on the channel (e.g., 1:1 in Teams) and optionally stores it and/or continues into it.

Read the full file on GitHub · 47 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. 27d ago Changed · +22 tokens per session 0cda6b170150
  2. 2mo ago First seen · 47 lines · 769 tokens per session scan A 53fb1646fde7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Agents-for-net proactive-messaging.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/Agents-for-net (183 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 791 tokens to every session, about $0.0032 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.

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