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/telemetry.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/telemetry)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/vscode/telemetry"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/vscode/telemetry/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/telemetry"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/vscode/telemetry.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 | $0.04475 | $0.04475 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.01790 | $0.01790 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00895 | $0.00895 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00447 | $0.00447 |
Grade B, and why
vscode telemetry.instructions.md scanned grade B with 1 finding 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.
Strips warnings and disclaimersmediumAnti-refusal
Omitting safety caveats hides risk from the user and is a common jailbreak preamble.
Recorded implementation validation: **92 tests passed**, client compilation/type-check passed, changed-TypeScript ESLint passed without warnings, and module/type layer and cyclic-dependency checks passed. The test select Copies of this mod
1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:
- nyrve telemetry.instructions.md — 100% identical, 184 lines differ
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 294 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Patterns for GDPR-compliant telemetry in VS Code with proper type safety and privacy protection.
Implementation Pattern
1. Define Types
type MyFeatureEvent = {
action: string;
duration: number;
success: boolean;
errorCode?: string;
};
type MyFeatureClassification = {
action: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'FeatureInsight'; comment: 'The action performed.' };
duration: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'PerformanceAndHealth'; isMeasurement: true; comment: 'Time in milliseconds.' };
success: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'FeatureInsight'; isMeasurement: true; comment: 'Whether action succeeded.' };
errorCode: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'PerformanceAndHealth'; comment: 'Error code if action failed.' };
owner: 'yourGitHubUsername';
comment: 'Tracks MyFeature usage and performance.';
};
2.1. Send Event
this.telemetryService.publicLog2<MyFeatureEvent, MyFeatureClassification>('myFeatureAction', {
action: 'buttonClick',
duration: 150,
success: true
});
2.2. Error Events
For error-specific telemetry with stack traces or error messages:
type MyErrorEvent = {
operation: string;
errorMessage: string;
duration?: number;
};
type MyErrorClassification = {
operation: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'PerformanceAndHealth'; comment: 'The operation that failed.' };
errorMessage: { classification: 'CallstackOrException'; purpose: 'PerformanceAndHealth'; comment: 'The error message.' };
duration: { classification: 'SystemMetaData'; purpose: 'PerformanceAndHealth'; isMeasurement: true; comment: 'Time until failure.' };
owner: 'yourGitHubUsername';
comment: 'Tracks MyFeature errors for reliability.';
};
this.telemetryService.publicLogError2<MyErrorEvent, MyErrorClassification>('myFeatureError', {
operation: 'fileRead',
errorMessage: error.message,
duration: 1200
});
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 Changed · +20 tokens per session 56dcd0926263
- 16d ago Changed · +178 lines · +3,351 tokens per session scan A → B e376a005a79a
- 1mo ago Changed · +2 lines · +125 tokens per session beaac5f17cef
- 1mo ago First seen · 114 lines · 979 tokens per session scan A f5956e1fc706
vscode telemetry.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/vscode (194,219 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 4,475 tokens to every session, about $0.0179 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (strips warnings and disclaimers). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
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