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/sammcj/mcp-devtools/copilot-instructionsgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sammcj/mcp-devtoolsWhat 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 | $0.04479 | $0.04479 |
| Opus 5 | $0.02240 | $0.02240 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00896 | $0.00896 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00448 | $0.00448 |
Grade A, and why
mcp-devtools 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 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 428 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
GitHub Copilot Instructions for MCP DevTools
Project Overview
MCP DevTools is a single, high-performance MCP (Model Context Protocol) server written in Go that replaces many Node.js and Python-based MCP servers with one efficient binary. It provides access to essential developer tools through a unified, modular interface that can be easily extended with new tools.
Key Features:
- Single binary solution replacing multiple resource-heavy servers
- 16+ essential developer tools in one package
- Built in Go for speed, efficiency, and minimal memory footprint
- Fast startup and response times
- Modular tool registry architecture allowing easy addition of new tools
- Supports multiple transports: stdio (default) and streamable HTTP
Development Setup
Building the Project
# Build the server
make build
# The binary will be created at: bin/mcp-devtools
Running the Server
# Run with stdio transport (default)
make run
# Run with HTTP transport
make run-http
Testing
# Run all tests (includes external API integration tests, ~10s)
make test
# Run fast tests (skips external dependencies, ~7s)
make test-fast
# Run tests with detailed timing
make test-verbose
Linting and Code Quality
# Format code
make fmt
# Run linters and modernisation checks
make lint
# This runs: gofmt, golangci-lint, and gopls modernize
Dependencies
# Install Go dependencies
make deps
# Install all dependencies (Go + Python for document processing)
make install-all
Project Structure
mcp-devtools/
├── internal/
│ ├── tools/ # All tool implementations
│ ├── registry/ # Tool registration system
│ ├── security/ # Security framework for file/network operations
│ ├── handlers/ # MCP protocol handlers
│ ├── config/ # Configuration management
│ ├── oauth/ # OAuth functionality
│ ├── cache/ # Caching utilities
│ ├── utils/ # Utility functions
│ └── imports/ # Import management
├── tests/
│ ├── tools/ # Unit tests for tools (REQUIRED for all tools)
│ ├── benchmarks/ # Performance and token cost tests
│ ├── oauth/ # OAuth tests
│ └── unit/ # Unit tests for internal packages
├── docs/
│ └── tools/ # Tool documentation (REQUIRED when adding tools)
├── main.go # Entry point - import new tools here
├── Makefile # Build, test, and development commands
└── mcp.json # MCP server configuration
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 First seen · 428 lines · 4,479 tokens per session scan A 9778431d23ab
mcp-devtools copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository sammcj/mcp-devtools (159 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 4,479 tokens to every session, about $0.0224 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.
Other instructions, from other repositories
20x AGENTS.md
Instructions for peakflo/20x, covering agents.md — multi-agent architecture (implemented), agent model, database schema, architecture and adapter architecture.
goal-flight AGENTS.md
Instructions for simonrowland/goal-flight, covering agent notes, goal flight routing, project commands (this repo), git workflow (this repo) and git-visible trigger hygiene.
m2e CLAUDE.md
Instructions for sammcj/m2e, covering claude.md, project overview, core architecture, main components and key files.
goal-flight CLAUDE.md
Instructions for simonrowland/goal-flight, covering claude code notes and git-visible trigger hygiene.
shua-labs AGENTS.md
Instructions for jmenzies722/shua-labs, covering agents, what shua labs is, brand constraints, architecture and testing requirements.
gnap CLAUDE.md
Instructions for farol-team/gnap, covering claude.md, what this repo is, architecture, key files and core protocol concepts.