generate-repo-instructions

generate-repo-instructions is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from canonical/copilot-collections. It costs 82 tokens per session (2,416 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A generator for a repository-wide .github/copilot-instructions.md file. This file gives coding assistants shared guidance about a repository's code, documentation, data, and working conventions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to analyze a repository and create global instructions for a code, documentation, data, or mixed project.
Why use it?
It saves time spent manually inspecting a repository and writing general instructions. It adapts the guidance to the type of project it finds.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex ✓ vendor

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to analyze a repository and create global instructions for a code, documentation, data, or mixed project.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions
About the project

Canonical Copilot Collections is a repository for organizing and distributing GitHub Copilot instructions, prompts, agents, and skills across Canonical repositories. Teams configure repositories to subscribe to shared collections, such as Python, documentation, or Juju development guidance, and keep those assets synchronized.

canonical/copilot-collections · 29 stars · on GitHub

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.

Any agent
npx skills add canonical/copilot-collections --skill generate-repo-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/canonical/copilot-collections

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 generate-repo-instructions

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-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.

agentmods 80×15 button for generate-repo-instructions

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/canonical/copilot-collections/generate-repo-instructions.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 82 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,416 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
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 $0.00082 $0.02416
Opus 5 $0.00041 $0.01208
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.00483
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00242

Measured 12d ago against content hash 50944365958e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

generate-repo-instructions 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 12d 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/skills/generate-repo-instructions/SKILL.md · 297 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 297 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Repository Instructions Generator

Overview

This skill generates the global .github/copilot-instructions.md file through comprehensive LLM-driven repository analysis. It autonomously discovers project characteristics, then populates a constitutional template with discovered values.

Works for all repository types:

  • Code repositories: Tech stack, build systems, coding conventions
  • Documentation repositories: Doc generators, writing style, content structure
  • Data repositories: Schemas, pipelines, quality standards
  • Mixed repositories: Adapts to whatever it finds

Key principle: Leverage LLM strengths for analysis and synthesis rather than rigid scripts.


Workflow

Step 1: Intent Validation

Confirm the user wants to create the global .github/copilot-instructions.md file.

Decision tree:

  • User wants global instructions? → Continue to Step 2
  • User wants path-specific instructions (e.g., "only for src/components/")?
    • → STOP. Redirect them to use generate-path-instructions skill instead
    • Explain: Path instructions use applyTo glob patterns for targeted loading
  • User wants a custom agent or skill?
    • → STOP. Clarify asset type using Asset Decision Matrix
    • Agent = role-based, Skill = capability-based

Proceed only if creating global instructions.


Step 2: Comprehensive Repository Analysis

Perform deep codebase discovery following the checklist in references/analysis_checklist.md.

Load the analysis checklist:

cat references/analysis_checklist.md

Work through all 7 phases systematically:

  1. Documentation Discovery - README, CONTRIBUTING, ARCHITECTURE docs
  2. Tech Stack Detection - Languages, frameworks, package managers
  3. Build System Discovery - Build/test/lint commands
  4. Code Pattern Analysis - Indentation, formatting, async patterns
  5. Project Structure Mapping - Directory purposes
  6. Configuration Files - .env, .editorconfig, git configs
  7. Security & Quality - Secret scanning, quality tools

Read the full file on GitHub · 297 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 12d ago First seen · 297 lines · 82 tokens per session scan A 50944365958e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

generate-repo-instructions is a skill published in the GitHub repository canonical/copilot-collections (29 stars, last pushed 9d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 82 tokens to every session and 2,416 once invoked, about $0.0004 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.

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