agentmods.dev

apm cli.instructions.md

A set of guidelines for designing command-line tools, including their visual output, help text, status messages, and structured displays.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when building or reviewing CLI output, Rich or colorama fallbacks, command help text, status symbols, tables, panels, and user-facing feedback.
Why use it?
It gives command-line projects consistent ways to show progress, errors, warnings, information, tables, and panels across different terminals.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

3.7k 2d ago A scan 1,211 tokens original MIT
View the source file microsoft/apm
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/apm/cli
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/apm

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 1,211 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,211 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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.01211 $0.01211
Opus 5 $0.00606 $0.00606
Sonnet 5 $0.00242 $0.00242
Haiku 4.5 $0.00121 $0.00121

Measured 2d ago against content hash 8e39e8d5047c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

apm cli.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/cli.instructions.md · 163 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 163 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLI Design Guidelines

Visual Design Standards

Rich Library Usage

  • ALWAYS use Rich library for visual output when available
  • Provide graceful fallbacks to colorama for compatibility
  • Use the established console instance with custom theme
  • Wrap Rich imports in try/catch with colorama fallbacks

Command Help Text

  • Keep command help strings plain ASCII — no emojis
  • Format: help="Initialize a new APM project"

Status Symbols & Feedback

  • Use STATUS_SYMBOLS dict for consistent ASCII bracket notation:
    • [+] success / confirmed
    • [>] running / execution / progress
    • [*] action / configuration / processing
    • [i] information / tips
    • [#] lists / metrics
    • [!] warnings
    • [x] errors
  • Use helper functions: _rich_success(), _rich_error(), _rich_info(), _rich_warning()
  • Pass the appropriate key from STATUS_SYMBOLS via the symbol= parameter (e.g. symbol="check", symbol="warning")

Structured Output

  • Tables: Use Rich tables for structured data (scripts, models, config, runtimes)
  • Panels: Use Rich panels for grouped content, next steps, examples
  • Consistent Spacing: Add empty lines between sections with console.print() or click.echo()

Error Handling

  • Use _rich_error() for all error messages
  • Always include contextual symbols
  • Provide actionable suggestions when possible
  • Maintain consistent error message format

Interactive Elements

  • Use Rich Prompt.ask() and Confirm.ask() when available
  • Provide click fallbacks for compatibility
  • Display confirmations in Rich panels when possible

Code Organization

Helper Functions

  • Use existing helper functions: _rich_echo(), _rich_panel(), _create_files_table()
  • Create new helpers following the same pattern
  • Always include Rich/colorama fallback logic

Color Scheme

  • Primary: cyan for titles and highlights
  • Success: green with [+] symbol
  • Warning: yellow with [!] symbol
  • Error: red with [x] symbol
  • Info: blue with [i] symbol
  • Muted: dim white for secondary text

Read the full file on GitHub · 163 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. 2d ago First seen · 163 lines · 1,211 tokens per session scan A 8e39e8d5047c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

apm cli.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/apm (3,668 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,211 tokens to every session, about $0.0061 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.

Data and AIai-agentsclaude-codecodex-clicontext-engineeringgithub-copilotprompt-engineering
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