copilot-guide: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

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 (the markdown attribute 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)