plan-forge context-fuel.instructions.md

A set of instructions for managing the information available to an AI coding agent across a session. It explains which project guidance to load for database, API, testing, planning, and architecture work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to choose relevant instruction files, load project capabilities at session start, follow a plan slice's scope, and recheck baseline architecture guidance when output quality declines.
Why use it?
It reduces confusion when the agent has many instructions or a long conversation and helps it recover when important context is being forgotten.

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/srnichols/plan-forge/context-fuel
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/srnichols/plan-forge

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 767 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 767 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 $0.00767 $0.00767
Opus 5 $0.00383 $0.00383
Sonnet 5 $0.00153 $0.00153
Haiku 4.5 $0.00077 $0.00077

Measured 2d ago against content hash 9d8a0b910c48, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

plan-forge context-fuel.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.

.github/instructions/context-fuel.instructions.md · 60 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 60 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Context Fuel

Context is what fuels good agent output. Running low starves quality.

When to Load What

Situation Action
Session start Call forge_capabilities once — gets the full surface (tools, skills, config, extensions) in one call instead of reading multiple files
Working on database code Prioritize database.instructions.md, security.instructions.md — read these first, reference others only when needed
Working on API endpoints Prioritize api-patterns.instructions.md, auth.instructions.md, errorhandling.instructions.md
Working on tests Prioritize testing.instructions.md — the test patterns and Temper Guards are more valuable than reviewing architecture rules
Executing a plan slice Read the plan's Scope Contract and the specific slice — don't reload the full plan every slice
Context feels degraded Stop and re-read architecture-principles.instructions.md — it's the universal baseline that anchors everything else

Recognizing Context Degradation

You are losing context when:

  • You repeat a mistake that a loaded instruction file already warns against
  • You forget a constraint you acknowledged earlier in the session (naming convention, forbidden pattern, tech commitment)
  • You make an architectural decision that contradicts the project's established patterns
  • You suggest adding a dependency that the Project Principles explicitly forbid
  • Your output quality drops noticeably — shorter explanations, missed edge cases, skipped validation
  • You can't recall the Scope Contract for the current slice

What to Do When Context Degrades

  1. Re-read the active instruction files — not all of them, just the ones relevant to the current task
  2. Check Project Principles — re-read docs/plans/PROJECT-PRINCIPLES.md if it exists
  3. Search memory — if OpenBrain is configured, run search_thoughts for the current task context to recall prior decisions
  4. Recommend a fresh session — Plan Forge uses 4 sessions for a reason. If context is severely degraded, suggest the user start a new session and hand off via the plan's status artifacts

Read the full file on GitHub · 60 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. 2d ago First seen · 60 lines · 767 tokens per session scan A 9d8a0b910c48

Subscribe to this mod's changes

plan-forge context-fuel.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository srnichols/plan-forge (5 stars, last pushed 22d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 767 tokens to every session, about $0.0038 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.

Related

Other instructions, from other repositories

dotnet-skills AGENTS.md

Instructions for managedcode/dotnet-skills, covering agents.md, purpose, solution topology, rule precedence and path and linking rules.

managedcode/dotnet-skills · 13,592 tokens

dotnet-skills copilot-instructions.md

Instructions for managedcode/dotnet-skills: Use AGENTS.md as the repository-wide source of truth for workflow, catalog structure, release policy, and skill maintenance rules.

managedcode/dotnet-skills · 97 tokens

copilot-instructions copilot-instructions.md

Instructions for SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions, covering copilot instructions, language policy, development code generation and workflow implementation.

SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions · 364 tokens

Perigon.CLI copilot-instructions.md

Instructions for AterDev/Perigon.CLI, covering github copilot instructions, general guidelines, 技术栈, 项目结构与分层 and 代码风格约定.

AterDev/Perigon.CLI · 1,254 tokens

maf-doctor maf-deployment.instructions.md

Always-loaded production-deployment patterns for MAF 1.3.0. Auto-applies to Program.cs, DI registration files, and infra config. Covers ManagedIdentityCredential, MaxTokens caps, secret handling, OpenTelemetry wiring, and the analyzer rules that catch regressions at write time.

joslat/maf-doctor · 1,884 tokens

maf-doctor copilot-instructions.md

Instructions for joslat/maf-doctor, covering maf 1.3.0 migration — auto-loaded constraints, maf 1.3.0 — constraints & breaking changes reference, hard constraints (never violate), fan-out / fan-in rules (silent failure risk) and key breaking changes.

joslat/maf-doctor · 1,604 tokens