context-prime

Context Prime

Why This is Copilot-Exclusive

Copilot CLI reads .github/copilot-instructions.md automatically on every session start. This skill layers additional context loading on top of that — fetching live project state (recent commits, file structure, test status) that static instructions can't capture.

When to Use

• At the start of any session before making changes to an unfamiliar codebase
• When resuming work after a long break (branch has moved, dependencies changed)
• Before running a large autopilot or fleet task — ensure the AI has full context
• When onboarding a new contributor — demonstrate the project structure interactively

Workflow

1. Read Project Identity

# Core identity files
Get-Content README.md | Select-Object -First 60

# Project instructions (Copilot reads this automatically, but re-surface it)
if (Test-Path .github/copilot-instructions.md) {
    Get-Content .github/copilot-instructions.md
}

2. Understand the File Structure

# List tracked files (respects .gitignore automatically)
git ls-files | Select-Object -First 100

# Or filtered by extension for a focused view
git ls-files | Where-Object { $_ -match '\.(ts|js|py|go|cs)$' } | Select-Object -First 80

# Top-level structure
Get-ChildItem -Depth 1 | Where-Object { $_.Name -notmatch '^\.' } |
  Select-Object Name, PSIsContainer | Format-Table

If you use /add-dir to expose an extra directory tree, you generally do not need to keep re-adding it during the session. Those added directories now persist across turns, which makes context priming less fragile when the task spans multiple exchanges.

3. Understand the Tech Stack

# Node.js
if (Test-Path package.json) {
    $pkg = Get-Content package.json | ConvertFrom-Json
    Write-Host "Project: $($pkg.name) v$($pkg.version)"
    Write-Host "Scripts: $($pkg.scripts.PSObject.Properties.Name -join ', ')"
    Write-Host "Key deps: $($pkg.dependencies.PSObject.Properties.Name -join ', ')"
}

# Python
if (Test-Path pyproject.toml) { Get-Content pyproject.toml | Select-Object -First 30 }

# .NET
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter "*.csproj" | Select-Object -First 3 | Get-Content