vscode tree-widgets.instructions.md

Guidance for using VS Code workbench tree widgets, which are hierarchical lists such as file explorers, search results, and debug views. These widgets include built-in workbench integration for navigation, menus, themes, keyboard use, accessibility, and selection.

In plain words
What is it for?
Building or updating hierarchical views that need file navigation, context menus, keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, multi-selection, theming, and VS Code service integration.
Why use it?
It helps developers use the existing tree components consistently instead of rebuilding common workbench behaviour for each feature.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

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/vscode/tree-widgets
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 1,456 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,456 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 $0.01456 $0.01456
Opus 5 $0.00728 $0.00728
Sonnet 5 $0.00291 $0.00291
Haiku 4.5 $0.00146 $0.00146

Measured yesterday against content hash 8c700772d745, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

vscode tree-widgets.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 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

.github/instructions/tree-widgets.instructions.md · 158 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 158 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Workbench Tree Widgets Overview

Location: src/vs/platform/list/browser/listService.ts Type: Platform Services Layer: Platform

Purpose

The Workbench Tree Widgets provide high-level, workbench-integrated tree components that extend the base tree implementations with VS Code-specific functionality like context menus, keyboard navigation, theming, accessibility, and dependency injection integration. These widgets serve as the primary tree components used throughout the VS Code workbench for file explorers, debug views, search results, and other hierarchical data presentations.

Scope

Included Functionality

  • Context Integration: Automatic context key management, focus handling, and VS Code theme integration
  • Resource Navigation: Built-in support for opening files and resources with proper editor integration
  • Accessibility: Complete accessibility provider integration with screen reader support
  • Keyboard Navigation: Smart keyboard navigation with search-as-you-type functionality
  • Multi-selection: Configurable multi-selection behavior with platform-appropriate modifier keys
  • Dependency Injection: Full integration with VS Code's service container for automatic service injection
  • Configuration: Automatic integration with user settings for tree behavior customization

Integration Points

  • IInstantiationService: For service injection and component creation
  • IContextKeyService: For managing focus, selection, and tree state context keys
  • IListService: For registering trees and managing workbench list lifecycle
  • IConfigurationService: For reading tree configuration settings
  • Resource Navigators: For handling file/resource opening with proper editor integration

Out of Scope

  • Low-level tree rendering and virtualization (handled by base tree classes)
  • Data management and async loading logic (provided by data sources)
  • Custom styling beyond workbench theming integration

Architecture

Read the full file on GitHub · 158 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. yesterday First seen · 158 lines · 1,456 tokens per session scan A 8c700772d745

Subscribe to this mod's changes

vscode tree-widgets.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/vscode (190,061 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 1,456 tokens to every session, about $0.0073 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.