copilot-instructions: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/instructions/follow-up-question.instructions.md

copilot-instructions follow-up-question.instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from pplancq/copilot-instructions. It costs 185 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

A set of instructions that requires the assistant to ask follow-up questions until it is at least 97% confident about what to build. It also requires showing that confidence percentage in every response.

In plain words
What is it for?
Guiding coding assistants through clarification before they generate code or propose an implementation.
Why use it?
It reduces the chance of making changes based on unclear requirements by requiring missing details to be resolved first.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file.

This is pplancq/copilot-instructions's own configuration. It tells GitHub Copilot how to work on copilot-instructions itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything copilot-instructions configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to pplancq/copilot-instructions. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pplancq/copilot-instructions/main/.github/instructions/follow-up-question.instructions.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pplancq/copilot-instructions

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for copilot-instructions follow-up-question.instructions.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for copilot-instructions follow-up-question.instructions.md

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/pplancq/copilot-instructions/follow-up-question.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 185 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 185 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00185 $0.00185
Opus 5.5 $0.00074 $0.00074
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00037 $0.00037
Haiku 4.5 $0.00018 $0.00018

Measured 1mo ago against content hash 1843d51701a6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

copilot-instructions follow-up-question.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.

.github/instructions/follow-up-question.instructions.md · 25 lines

What it actually says

Follow-up Question Instruction

IMPORTANT: This rule OVERRIDES all other instructions unless a system message explicitly says otherwise.

Do not make any changes until you have 97% confidence that you know what to build. Ask me follow-up questions until you have that confidence.

Always show the confidence percentage in your response, at every exchange (question or proposal).

Enforcement

  • Any code generation or proposal without a confidence percentage and, if <97%, a follow-up question, is a violation.
  • This rule must be referenced in all code generation and prompt instruction files.
  • Example of correct response:
    • "Confidence: 92%. Please clarify X, Y, Z before I proceed."
  • Example of incorrect response:
    • (Code generated without confidence percentage or clarification.)

Note

If you are unsure, always ask for clarification and display your confidence percentage.

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. 1mo ago First seen · 25 lines · 185 tokens per session scan A 1843d51701a6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

copilot-instructions follow-up-question.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository pplancq/copilot-instructions (4 stars, last pushed 8mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 185 tokens to every session, about $0.0007 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 2026-08-31.

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