copilot-instructions: Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

.github/instructions/workflow-optimization.instructions.md

copilot-instructions workflow-optimization.instructions.md is an instructions file for GitHub Copilot from ThiagoGuislotti/copilot-instructions. It costs 707 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

Guidelines for breaking down coding tasks, routing them to the right instructions, and preserving only the context needed for the work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them to plan non-trivial changes, separate concerns, prioritize work, and maintain versioned planning records.
Why use it?
They make large tasks easier to manage and help keep implementation order aligned with dependencies, validation, and documentation needs.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Written for GitHub Copilot: a Copilot instructions file. Also seen: mentions subagents.

This is ThiagoGuislotti/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 ThiagoGuislotti/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/ThiagoGuislotti/copilot-instructions/main/.github/instructions/workflow-optimization.instructions.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ThiagoGuislotti/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 workflow-optimization.instructions.md

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/thiagoguislotti/copilot-instructions/workflow-optimization.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/thiagoguislotti/copilot-instructions/workflow-optimization)
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<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/thiagoguislotti/copilot-instructions/workflow-optimization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/thiagoguislotti/copilot-instructions/workflow-optimization.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 707 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 707 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 $0.00707 $0.00707
Opus 5 $0.00353 $0.00353
Sonnet 5 $0.00141 $0.00141
Haiku 4.5 $0.00071 $0.00071

Measured 3d ago against content hash 2883e7139168, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

copilot-instructions workflow-optimization.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 3d 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/workflow-optimization.instructions.md · 79 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 79 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Task Breakdown

Split large tasks into manageable steps; avoid hard token limits; split by functional domain when possible.

Planning and Routing

  • For non-trivial work, route first and then follow instructions/subagent-planning-workflow.instructions.md.
  • Treat planning/README.md, planning/active/, and planning/completed/ as the versioned planning workspace.
  • Keep the context pack minimal, but do not omit mandatory instruction files or the planning workflow when the task needs staging.

Prioritization

  • Critical config changes first
  • Core validation logic second
  • Template updates third
  • Docs fourth
  • Validation tests last
  • Respect logical dependencies

Separation of Concerns

Keep single instruction files concise; group related files by domain; handle cross-cutting changes by layer (config, validation, templates); implement new features in phases (creation, integration, testing).

Context Preservation

Include relevant context gathering; avoid repeating already provided information; focus on requested specific changes; use targeted file searches when necessary.

Token Efficiency

  • Avoid reproducing entire files
  • Use comments to represent existing code when allowed
  • Focus on minimal diffs
  • Consolidate related changes
  • Separate independent concerns
  • Eliminate redundancies
  • Never repeat provided context
  • Focus exclusively on deltas
  • Minimal examples
  • Prioritize clarity over verbosity
  • Target duplicated output and repeated narration before attempting any input/context reduction
  • Never cut required working context by default just to save tokens; do that only with explicit proof that quality is preserved

Context Economy and Checkpoint

Full protocol, compression triggers, six-block state model, CHECKPOINT format, and user commands: instructions/context-economy-checkpoint.instructions.md.

User commands: checkpoint, compress context, update plan, show status, show progress, resume from summary (PT-BR aliases in .github/COMMANDS.md).

Read the full file on GitHub · 79 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. 3d ago First seen · 79 lines · 707 tokens per session scan A 2883e7139168

Subscribe to this mod's changes

copilot-instructions workflow-optimization.instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository ThiagoGuislotti/copilot-instructions (2 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 707 tokens to every session, about $0.0035 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 2026-09-03.

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