What is novel-writer copilot-instructions.md?

A repository guide for Novel Writer, a command-line tool and template collection for creating Chinese novels with Spec-Driven Development, a method of planning software through written specifications before implementation.

Use it when changing the CLI, build process, project initialization, agent templates, generated command files, or the specification and story directories.

It explains the important files, project layout, build commands, generated agent instructions, and conventions so changes can be made without guessing how the tool works.

How wordflowlab/novel-writer configures Claude Code and GitHub Copilot

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to wordflowlab/novel-writer. 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/wordflowlab/novel-writer/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wordflowlab/novel-writer

Made for: Claude Code, 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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/copilot-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/copilot-instructions)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/copilot-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/wordflowlab/novel-writer/copilot-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 1,183 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 1,183 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.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.01183	$0.01183
Opus 5.5	$0.00473	$0.00473
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00237	$0.00237
Haiku 4.5	$0.00118	$0.00118

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 68fcab4527eb, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

novel-writer 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.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 66 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 66 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Quick context for AI coding agents

This repository is an AI-first CLI tool and template collection for creating Chinese novels using a Spec-Driven Development (SDD) workflow. Key components:

src/cli.ts — primary CLI entry (commands: init, upgrade, etc.). Look here for how projects are bootstrapped and how AI agent types map to filesystem layout.
package.json — build/dev scripts. npm run build compiles TypeScript; npm run build:commands generates per-agent command files from templates.
dist/* — build artifacts containing pre-generated agent command sets (copied into user projects by init).
.specify/, spec/, stories/ — runtime project layout produced by novel init.
other/spec-kit/AGENTS.md — long-form guidance and agent conventions; use it as authoritative reference when adding new agents.

Keep instructions short and concrete: reference the exact file and function you changed and prefer small, self-contained edits.

High-level architecture notes

The CLI bootstraps a project by copying built artifacts from the package root (dist/<agent>) into the target project and creating .specify/* scaffolding (src/cli.ts, copy logic around sourceMap).
Agent configuration is agent-centric: directories like .claude/commands, .gemini/commands, .cursor/commands are created and populated during novel init.
Agent metadata and behavioral decisions are centered in the Spec Kit patterns documented in other/spec-kit/AGENTS.md. When adding agents, prefer updating AGENT_CONFIG (in the spec-kit implementation) and the scripts/* update tooling.

Common developer workflows (how to run / build / test)

Local development: npm run dev (runs tsx src/cli.ts) — fast way to iterate on CLI behavior without building.
Build: npm run build (TypeScript -> dist/), then npm run build:commands to regenerate per-agent command files. prepare and prepublishOnly call both.
If an init action warns that a dist artifact is missing, run npm run build:commands and re-run the command.

Read the full file on GitHub · 66 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.

2mo ago First seen · 66 lines · 1,183 tokens per session scan A 68fcab4527eb

Subscribe to this mod's changes

novel-writer copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository wordflowlab/novel-writer (957 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 1,183 tokens to every session, about $0.0047 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 2026-08-30.

Planning Writing and docs engineering novels sdd spec spec-driven

novel-writer copilot-instructions.md next to 6 instructions from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
novel-writer copilot-instructions.mdwordflowlab/novel-writer	Instructions file	957	1y ago	MIT	A	1,183	Claude Code, 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	today	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

novel-writer: Instructions file for Claude Code