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.
npx skills add SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions --skill viewing-filesgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructionsWrote 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/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/viewing-files)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/viewing-files"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/sebastiendegodez/copilot-instructions/viewing-files.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>- NVIDIA SkillSpector pass
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 | $0.00030 | $0.00872 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00015 | $0.00436 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00006 | $0.00174 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00087 |
Grade A, and why
viewing-files 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 8d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 102 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
bat: Enhanced File Viewer with Syntax Highlighting
Always invoke viewing-files skill for enhanced file viewing - do not execute bash commands directly.
Use bat as a modern replacement for cat with beautiful syntax highlighting, Git integration, and smart features.
When to Use bat vs cat
Use bat when:
- Viewing source code or structured text files
- Syntax highlighting improves readability
- Need Git integration or line numbers
- Working with files >50 lines where highlighting helps
- Previewing changes from other tools
Use cat when:
- Very small files (<10 lines)
- Non-text/binary files
- Simple concatenation without formatting
- When highlighting would add noise
- Performance-critical operations on many tiny files
Common workflow: Any skill → viewing-files skill (preview enhanced output)
Default Strategy
Invoke viewing-files skill for enhanced file viewing with syntax highlighting. Use when viewing source files, documentation, or when syntax highlighting improves readability.
Common workflow: Any discovery skill → viewing-files skill (preview enhanced output).
Key Options
Display Control
-n/--numberline numbers only-p/--plainplain output (no decorations)-A/--show-allshow non-printable characters--line-range START:ENDview specific lines--wrap neverdisable line wrapping--tabs Nset tab width to N spaces
Language & Themes
-l/--language LANGforce language detection--list-languagesshow supported languages--list-themesshow available themes--theme NAMEset color theme (default: Monokai Extended)--theme-dark/--theme-lightauto-switch themes based on terminalBAT_THEMEenvironment variable for default theme
Output Styling
--style COMPONENTScontrol output (numbers,changes,header,grid,snip)--decorations auto|never|alwayscontrol decorations--color always|never|autocontrol coloring
Paging
--paging auto|never|alwayscontrol paging behavior--pager COMMANDset custom pagerBAT_PAGERenvironment variable
What ships with it
1 file 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.
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.
- 8d ago First seen · 102 lines · 30 tokens per session scan A 5c9bf6d21b57
viewing-files is a skill published in the GitHub repository SebastienDegodez/copilot-instructions (192 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 30 tokens to every session and 872 once invoked, about $0.0002 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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