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.
npx agentmods add instructions/microsoft/vscode/buildnextgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/vscodeWhat 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 | $0.06785 | $0.06785 |
| Opus 5 | $0.03393 | $0.03393 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.01357 | $0.01357 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00679 | $0.00679 |
Grade A, and why
buildNext 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 yesterday.
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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 347 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Working Notes: New esbuild-based Build System
These notes are for AI agents to help with context in new or summarized sessions.
Important: Validating Changes
The VS Code - Build task is NOT needed to validate changes in the build/ folder!
Build scripts in build/ are TypeScript files that run directly with node (e.g., node build/next/index.ts). They are not compiled by the main VS Code build.
To test changes:
# Test transpile
node build/next/index.ts transpile --out out-test
# Test bundle (server-web target to test the auth fix)
node build/next/index.ts bundle --nls --target server-web --out out-vscode-reh-web-test
# Verify product config was injected
grep -l "serverLicense" out-vscode-reh-web-test/vs/code/browser/workbench/workbench.js
Architecture Overview
Files
- index.ts - Main build orchestrator
build-fastcommand: Persistent non-watch incremental development buildtranspilecommand: Fast TS → JS usingesbuild.transform()bundlecommand: TS → bundled JS usingesbuild.build()
- build-fast.ts - Git change discovery, persistent state, lane planning, and orchestration
- transpile.ts - Shared full/watch/incremental transpile and copy operations
- nls-plugin.ts - NLS (localization) esbuild plugin
- private-to-property.ts - Native private to property transformation
Fast Non-Watch Incremental Builds
npm run build-fast stores its last successful input state in .build/build-fast/state.json. It uses scoped Git deltas plus content hashes for currently dirty/untracked inputs, so a repeated invocation can skip every build lane without running a watcher or scanning all source files.
- Client changes are transpiled/copied/deleted at file granularity.
- Built-in extension/media and Copilot builds run only when their inputs change.
- Missing, incompatible, or invalid state falls back to a full build.
npm run build-fast -- --forceforces all lanes to rebuild and refreshes state.- State is invalidated before outputs change and published only after every selected lane succeeds. If inputs change during the build, the pre-build snapshot is saved so late changes are rebuilt on the next run.
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.
- yesterday First seen · 347 lines · 6,785 tokens per session scan A 15fe3cdbaefe
buildNext is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/vscode (190,061 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 6,785 tokens to every session, about $0.0339 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.
Other instructions, from other repositories
vscode-peacock AGENTS.md
Instructions for johnpapa/vscode-peacock, covering peacock — agent guide, project overview, repository structure, tech stack and build & run.
vscode-peacock copilot-instructions.md
Instructions for johnpapa/vscode-peacock, covering copilot instructions — peacock, project type, typescript conventions, vs code extension patterns and color handling.
code-by-wire CLAUDE.md
Instructions for luojiahai/code-by-wire, covering claude.md, development, website, architecture and code style.
swob AGENTS.md
Instructions for IvyYang1999/swob, covering swob 研发协作唯一规范, 不可越过的边界, 角色与职责, 生命周期 and 分支、worktree 与提交.
clodex-ide AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for mereyabdenbekuly-ctrl/clodex-ide, covering clodex repository agent rules, open/closed product boundary, commercial product invariant, current protocol v0 phase and current authorization state.
data-peek CLAUDE.md
Claude Code instructions for Rohithgilla12/data-peek, covering claude.md, project overview, commands, development (from root) and from apps/desktop.