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/nishanil/copilot-guide/copilot-instructionsgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nishanil/copilot-guideWhat 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 | $0.00679 | $0.00679 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00340 | $0.00340 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00136 | $0.00136 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00068 | $0.00068 |
Grade A, and why
copilot-guide copilot-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 2d 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 — 48 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
copilot-guide — Copilot Instructions
This repository is a comprehensive reference guide documenting every GitHub Copilot customization and agentic feature. Its single artifact is README.md.
What this repo is
- Content type: Markdown documentation only — no source code, no build step, no tests
- Audience: Developers who want to understand and use Copilot's customization and agentic features
- Goal: Accurate, concise, and up-to-date descriptions of each feature with concrete examples
Contribution conventions
- Keep all content inside
README.md— do not split into separate pages - Use the existing section structure: Customization → Agentic → Platform → Community → Best Practices → Quick Reference → Further Reading
- Every feature section must include:
- A one-line summary
- A
> **When you need it:**callout explaining the motivation - A
📁 Location:line (where applicable) - A concrete code or config example (preferably inside a
<details>block if it is long) - A two-column summary table at the end of the section
- Use
<details markdown>/<summary>blocks to keep examples collapsible and the page scannable (themarkdownattribute is required for MkDocs rendering on GitHub Pages) - Feature names in prose should match their heading exactly (e.g. "Custom Instructions", "Copilot Coding Agent")
- Link every external reference (docs, blog posts, repos) — no bare mentions without a URL
Style rules
- Use
**bold**for UI labels and key terms on first use in a section - Use backticks for file paths, CLI commands, and code values
- Prefer concrete names over abstract ones: "RecipeShare" app examples are used throughout; keep new examples consistent with that project
- Do not add emojis to prose; the ASCII-art diagram at the top and the section header emojis are intentional — don't add more
- Keep the Quick Reference table in sync when adding or removing features
What not to change
- Do not reorder the top-level sections
- Do not remove or rename existing feature entries
- Do not convert
<details markdown>examples to inline code blocks — keeping them collapsible is intentional - Do not modify these structural HTML wrappers — they control GitHub Pages rendering:
<div align="center">...</div>(top header)<div class="ascii-glance" markdown>...</div>(At a Glance code block)<div class="svg-glance">...</div>(SVG placeholder for Pages)<div class="readme-toc" markdown>...</div>(Table of Contents)<p class="gh-pages-link">...</p>(Pages link, hidden on site)
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.
- 2d ago First seen · 48 lines · 679 tokens per session scan A 790b88dc56d6
copilot-guide copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository nishanil/copilot-guide (4 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 679 tokens to every session, about $0.0034 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 2026-08-31.
Other instructions, from other repositories
Project Guidelines
VS Code extension project guidelines for GitHub Copilot Insights. Covers project shape, code style, VS Code extension rules, build and test, and repository discipline.
Repo Validation Workflow
Use when: changing, validating, testing, or reviewing this VS Code extension repository. Covers npm compile, lint, test harness, Electron test caveats, and build output.
github-copilot-superpowers copilot-agent.instructions.md
Instructions for kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers, covering copilot agent instructions, 🎯 instruction hierarchy, 📋 execution order vs priority, execution order (workflow sequence) and ⛔ mandatory response template (every request).
github-copilot-superpowers subagents.instructions.md
Instructions for kasuken/github-copilot-superpowers, covering subagent instructions (ssot), terminology, agent role: orchestrator only, ⚠️ absolute rules (non-negotiable) and mcp delegation rules.
github-copilot-superpowers taming-copilot.instructions.md
Prevent Copilot from wreaking havoc across your codebase, keeping it under control.
github-copilot-superpowers task-direction-approval.instructions.md
Prevents unauthorized direction changes by requiring user approval before deviating from original requirements.