Visual Studio Code is a code editor that supports editing, navigating, understanding, debugging, and extending software projects. Developers use it for the edit-build-debug cycle, and the catalogue add-ons provide skills, instructions, and agents for working within the editor.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/vscode. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/vscode/main/.github/instructions/source-code-organization.instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/vscodeWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/vscode/source-code-organization)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/vscode/source-code-organization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/vscode/source-code-organization/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/vscode/source-code-organization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/vscode/source-code-organization.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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 5.1 | $0.00662 | $0.00662 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00265 | $0.00265 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00132 | $0.00132 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00066 | $0.00066 |
Grade A, and why
vscode source-code-organization.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 1mo 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 70 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Source Code Organization
Canonical reference: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Source-Code-Organization
Layers
The src/vs/ core is partitioned into ordered layers — each may only import from layers below it:
base— General utilities and UI building blocks (no service dependencies)platform— Service injection support and base services shared across layerseditor— Monaco Editor core (nonodeorelectron-*dependencies)workbench— Full VS Code workbench, panels, views, and frameworkcode— Desktop app entry point (Electron main, shared process, CLI)server— Server app entry point for remote developmentsessions— Agent Sessions window (may import fromworkbenchand below;workbenchmust never import fromsessions)
Target Environments
Within each layer, code is organized by runtime environment:
| Folder | APIs Available | May Use |
|---|---|---|
common |
Basic JavaScript only | — |
browser |
Web/DOM APIs | common |
node |
Node.js APIs | common |
electron-browser |
Browser + limited Electron IPC | common, browser |
electron-utility |
Electron utility process | common, node |
electron-main |
Electron main process | common, node, electron-utility |
Workbench Organization
vs/workbench/{common|browser|electron-browser}— minimal workbench corevs/workbench/api—vscode.d.tsAPI providervs/workbench/services— core services (not contrib-specific)vs/workbench/contrib— feature contributions
Contribution Rules
- No dependency from outside
contrib/intocontrib/ - Each contribution has a single
.contribution.tsentry point - Contributions expose internal API from a single common file
- Cross-contribution dependencies use that common API — never reach into internals
Entry Points
Only code referenced from entry point files is loaded:
workbench.common.main.ts— shared dependenciesworkbench.desktop.main.ts— desktop-onlyworkbench.web.main.ts— web-only
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.
- 1mo ago First seen · 70 lines · 662 tokens per session scan A 20dfadeeeacb
vscode source-code-organization.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/vscode (194,219 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 662 tokens to every session, about $0.0026 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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