vscode ai-customization.instructions.md

AI Customization View

The AI Customization view provides a unified view for discovering and managing AI customization 'artifacts' (customizations that augment LLM prompts or behavior).

Examples of these include: Custom Agents, Skills, Instructions, and Prompts. It surfaces prompt files that are typically hidden in .github/ folders, user data directories, workspace settings, or exposed via extensions.

Overview

The view displays a hierarchical tree structure:

AI Customization (View Container)
└── AI Customization (Tree View)
    ├── Custom Agents (.agent.md files)
    │   ├── Workspace
    │   │   └── agent files...
    │   ├── User
    │   │   └── agent files...
    │   └── Extensions
    │       └── agent files...
    ├── Skills (SKILL.md files)
    │   └── (same storage structure)
    ├── Instructions (.instructions.md files)
    │   └── (same storage structure)
    └── Prompts (.prompt.md files)
        └── (same storage structure)

Key Features:

• 3-level tree hierarchy: Category → Storage Group → Files
• Auto-expands category nodes on initial load and refresh to show storage groups
• Symbol-based root element for type safety
• Double-click to open files in editor
• Context menu support with Open and Run Prompt actions
• Toolbar actions: New dropdown, Refresh, Collapse All
• Skill names parsed from frontmatter with fallback to folder name
• Responsive to IPromptsService change events

File Structure

All files are located in src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/aiCustomization/:

aiCustomization/
├── aiCustomization.ts              # Constants, IDs, and MenuIds
├── aiCustomization.contribution.ts # View registration and actions
├── aiCustomizationViews.ts         # Tree view pane implementation
├── aiCustomizationIcons.ts         # Icon registrations
└── media/
    └── aiCustomization.css         # Styling

Key Constants (aiCustomization.ts)

• AI_CUSTOMIZATION_VIEWLET_ID: View container ID for sidebar
• AI_CUSTOMIZATION_VIEW_ID: Unified tree view ID
• AI_CUSTOMIZATION_STORAGE_ID: State persistence key
• AICustomizationItemMenuId: Context menu ID
• AICustomizationNewMenuId: New item submenu ID