Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to user-ic/vscode_mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user-ic/vscode_mcp/main/.github/copilot-instructions.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/user-ic/vscode_mcpWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/user-ic/vscode_mcp/copilot-instructions)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/user-ic/vscode_mcp/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/user-ic/vscode_mcp/copilot-instructions/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/user-ic/vscode_mcp/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/user-ic/vscode_mcp/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00333 | $0.00333 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00133 | $0.00133 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00067 | $0.00067 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00033 | $0.00033 |
Grade A, and why
vscode_mcp 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 2mo 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.
What it actually says
VS Code Editor MCP — Copilot Instructions
This project is a VS Code extension that embeds a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server exposing the editor's state to LLM clients.
Architecture
src/extension.ts— VS Code extension entry point. Listens to editor events and writes the active editor state to a shared JSON file in the OS temp dir.src/server.ts— Standalone MCP server (stdio transport). Reads the shared JSON file and exposes theget_selectiontool.src/state.ts— Shared types and the temp file path used by both sides.
The extension and the MCP server run in separate processes. They communicate
through the JSON state file (vscode-editor-mcp-state.json in os.tmpdir()).
MCP TypeScript SDK (v2)
- Docs: https://ts.sdk.modelcontextprotocol.io/v2/
- Server package:
@modelcontextprotocol/server(McpServer) - Stdio transport:
@modelcontextprotocol/server/stdio(StdioServerTransport) - Tool input schemas use Zod v4 (
import * as z from "zod/v4"). - Spec: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28
Rules
- Never use
console.loginserver.ts; stdout corrupts the JSON-RPC stream. Useconsole.error(stderr) for logging. - Keep line/character numbers 1-based in anything user- or LLM-facing.
- Build with
npm run build; output goes toout/.
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.
- 2mo ago First seen · 31 lines · 333 tokens per session scan A 5734cde7325b
vscode_mcp copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository user-ic/vscode_mcp (0 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 333 tokens to every session, about $0.0013 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.
vscode_mcp copilot-instructions.md compared with instructions from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vscode_mcp copilot-instructions.mduser-ic/vscode_mcp | Instructions file | 0 | 2mo ago | MIT | A | 333 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 9,719 | GitHub Copilot |
| next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js | Instructions file | 143k | yesterday | MIT | A | 7,461 | Codex, OpenCode |
| langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain | Instructions file | 149k | yesterday | MIT | A | 4,680 | Codex, OpenCode |
| vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 5,516 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 3,093 | GitHub Copilot |
| deepseek-harness AGENTS.mddeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness | Instructions file | 274k | 2d ago | MIT | A | 4,313 | Codex, OpenCode |