Adding repository custom instructions for GitHub Copilot

Introduction

Repository custom instructions let you provide Copilot with repository-specific guidance and preferences on GitHub. To find out how to set up custom instructions in an IDE, see Adding repository custom instructions for GitHub Copilot in your IDE. For more information about custom instructions, see À propos de la personnalisation des réponses GitHub Copilot.

Conditions préalables pour les instructions personnalisées du référentiel

• Vous devez disposer d'un fichier d'instructions personnalisé (voir les instructions ci-dessous).

• For révision du code Copilot, your personal choice of whether to use custom instructions must be set to enabled. This is enabled by default. See Enabling or disabling repository custom instructions later in this article.

Creating custom instructions

Copilot on GitHub supports three types of repository custom instructions. For details of which GitHub Copilot features support these types of instructions, see À propos de la personnalisation des réponses GitHub Copilot.

• Repository-wide custom instructions apply to all requests made in the context of a repository.

  These are specified in a copilot-instructions.md file in the .github directory of the repository. See Creating repository-wide custom instructions.

• Path-specific custom instructions apply to requests made in the context of files that match a specified path.

  These are specified in one or more NAME.instructions.md files within or below the .github/instructions directory in the repository. See Creating path-specific custom instructions.

  If the path you specify matches a file that Copilot is working on, and a repository-wide custom instructions file also exists, then the instructions from both files are used.

• Agent instructions are used by AI agents.

  Vous pouvez créer un ou plusieurs fichiers AGENTS.md, stockés n'importe où dans le référentiel. Lorsque Copilot est en fonctionnement, le fichier AGENTS.md le plus proche dans l’arborescence de répertoires sera prioritaire. Pour plus d’informations, consultez le dépôt agentsmd/agents.md.

  Alternatively, you can use a single CLAUDE.md or GEMINI.md file stored in the root of the repository.

Creating repository-wide custom instructions

You can create your own custom instructions file from scratch. See Writing your own copilot-instructions.md file. Alternatively, you can ask Agent cloud Copilot to generate one for you.

Asking Agent cloud Copilot to generate a copilot-instructions.md file

1. Go to the agents tab at github.com/copilot/agents.

   You can also reach this page by clicking the button next to the search bar on any page on GitHub, then selecting Agents from the sidebar.

2. In the prompt field dropdown, select the repository you want Copilot to generate custom instructions for.

3. Copy the following prompt and paste it into the prompt field, customizing it if needed:

   Markdown

   Your task is to "onboard" this repository to Copilot cloud agent by adding a .github/copilot-instructions.md file in the repository that contains information describing how a cloud agent seeing it for the first time can work most efficiently.
   
   You will do this task only one time per repository and doing a good job can SIGNIFICANTLY improve the quality of the agent's work, so take your time, think carefully, and search thoroughly before writing the instructions.
   
   <Goals>
   - Reduce the likelihood of a cloud agent pull request getting rejected by the user due to
   generating code that fails the continuous integration build, fails a validation pipeline, or
   having misbehavior.
   - Minimize bash command and build failures.
   - Allow the agent to complete its task more quickly by minimizing the need for exploration using grep, find, str_replace_editor, and code search tools.
   </Goals>
   
   <Limitations>
   - Instructions must be no longer than 2 pages.
   - Instructions must not be task specific.
   </Limitations>
   
   <WhatToAdd>
   
   Add the following high level details about the codebase to reduce the amount of searching the agent has to do to understand the codebase each time:
   <HighLevelDetails>
   
   - A summary of what the repository does.
   - High level repository information, such as the size of the repo, the type of the project, the languages, frameworks, or target runtimes in use.
   </HighLevelDetails>
   
   Add information about how to build and validate changes so the agent does not need to search and find it each time.
   <BuildInstructions>
   
   - For each of bootstrap, build, test, run, lint, and any other scripted step, document the sequence of steps to take to run it successfully as well as the versions of any runtime or build tools used.
   - Each command should be validated by running it to ensure that it works correctly as well as any preconditions and postconditions.
   - Try cleaning the repo and environment and running commands in different orders and document errors and misbehavior observed as well as any steps used to mitigate the problem.
   - Run the tests and document the order of steps required to run the tests.
   - Make a change to the codebase. Document any unexpected build issues as well as the workarounds.
   - Document environment setup steps that seem optional but that you have validated are actually required.
   - Document the time required for commands that failed due to timing out.
   - When you find a sequence of commands that work for a particular purpose, document them in detail.
   - Use language to indicate when something should always be done. For example: "always run npm install before building".
   - Record any validation steps from documentation.
   </BuildInstructions>
   
   List key facts about the layout and architecture of the codebase to help the agent find where to make changes with minimal searching.
   <ProjectLayout>
   
   - A description of the major architectural elements of the project, including the relative paths to the main project files, the location
   of configuration files for linting, compilation, testing, and preferences.
   - A description of the checks run prior to check in, including any GitHub workflows, continuous integration builds, or other validation pipelines.
   - Document the steps so that the agent can replicate these itself.
   - Any explicit validation steps that the agent can consider to have further confidence in its changes.
   - Dependencies that aren't obvious from the layout or file structure.
   - Finally, fill in any remaining space with detailed lists of the following, in order of priority: the list of files in the repo root, the
   contents of the README, the contents of any key source files, the list of files in the next level down of directories, giving priority to the more structurally important and snippets of code from key source files, such as the one containing the main method.
   </ProjectLayout>
   </WhatToAdd>
   
   <StepsToFollow>
   - Perform a comprehensive inventory of the codebase. Search for and view:
   - README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and all other documentation files.
   - Search the codebase for build steps and indications of workarounds like 'HACK', 'TODO', etc.
   - All scripts, particularly those pertaining to build and repo or environment setup.
   - All build and actions pipelines.
   - All project files.
   - All configuration and linting files.
   - For each file:
   - think: are the contents or the existence of the file information that the cloud agent will need to implement, build, test, validate, or demo a code change?
   - If yes:
      - Document the command or information in detail.
      - Explicitly indicate which commands work and which do not and the order in which commands should be run.
      - Document any errors encountered as well as the steps taken to workaround them.
   - Document any other steps or information that the agent can use to reduce time spent exploring or trying and failing to run bash commands.
   - Finally, explicitly instruct the agent to trust the instructions and only perform a search if the information in the instructions is incomplete or found to be in error.
   </StepsToFollow>
      - Document any errors encountered as well as the steps taken to work-around them.
   
   

4. Click or press Enter.

Copilot will start a new session, which will appear in the list below the prompt box. Copilot will create a draft pull request, write your custom instructions, push them to the branch, then add you as a reviewer when finished, triggering a notification.

Writing your own copilot-instructions.md file

1. In the root of your repository, create a file named .github/copilot-instructions.md.

   Create the .github directory if it does not already exist.

2. Add natural language instructions to the file, in Markdown format.

   Whitespace between instructions is ignored, so the instructions can be written as a single paragraph, each on a new line, or separated by blank lines for legibility.

Creating path-specific custom instructions

1. Créez le .github/instructions répertoire s'il n'existe pas déjà.

2. Si vous le souhaitez, créez des sous-répertoires de .github/instructions pour organiser vos fichiers d’instructions.

3. Créez un ou plusieurs fichiers NAME.instructions.md, où NAME indique l’objectif des instructions. Le nom de fichier doit se terminer par .instructions.md.

4. Au début du fichier, créez un bloc frontmatter contenant le mot-clé applyTo. Utilisez la syntaxe glob pour spécifier les fichiers ou répertoires auxquels les instructions s’appliquent.

   Par exemple :

   ---
   applyTo: "app/models/**/*.rb"
   ---
   

   Vous pouvez spécifier plusieurs modèles en les séparant par des virgules. Par exemple, pour appliquer les instructions à tous les fichiers TypeScript du référentiel, vous pouvez utiliser le bloc frontmatter suivant :

   ---
   applyTo: "**/*.ts,**/*.tsx"
   ---
   

   Exemples Glob :

   •      `*` - correspond à tous les fichiers du répertoire en cours.
     

   •      `**` ou `**/*` - correspond à tous les fichiers de tous les répertoires.
     

   •      `*.py` - correspond à tous les `.py` fichiers du répertoire actif.
     

   •      `**/*.py` - correspond de manière récursive à tous les `.py` fichiers de tous les répertoires.
     

   •      `src/*.py` - correspond à tous les `.py` fichiers du `src` répertoire. Par exemple, `src/foo.py` et `src/bar.py` mais _pas_`src/foo/bar.py`.
     

   •      `src/**/*.py` - correspond de manière récursive à tous les `.py` fichiers du `src` répertoire. Par exemple, `src/foo.py`, `src/foo/bar.py`et `src/foo/bar/baz.py`.
     

   •           `**/subdir/**/*.py` - correspond de manière récursive à tous les `.py` fichiers d’un répertoire à n’importe quelle `subdir` profondeur. Par exemple, `subdir/foo.py`, `subdir/nested/bar.py`, `parent/subdir/baz.py` et `deep/parent/subdir/nested/qux.py`, mais _pas_`foo.py` à un chemin qui ne contient pas de répertoire `subdir`.
     

5. Si vous le souhaitez, pour empêcher l’utilisation du fichier par Agent cloud Copilot ou révision du code Copilot, ajoutez le mot clé excludeAgent au bloc frontmatter. Utilisez l’une ou l’autre "code-review" ou "cloud-agent".

   Par exemple, le fichier suivant est lu uniquement par Agent cloud Copilot.

   ---
   applyTo: "**"
   excludeAgent: "code-review"
   ---
   

   Si le mot clé excludeAgent n’est pas inclus dans le front matterblock, révision du code Copilot et Agent cloud Copilot utiliseront vos instructions.

6. Ajoutez vos instructions personnalisées en langage naturel à l’aide du format Markdown. L'espacement entre les instructions est ignoré, de sorte que les instructions peuvent être écrites comme un seul paragraphe, chacune sur une nouvelle ligne, ou séparées par des lignes vides pour plus de lisibilité.

          <a href="https://docs.github.io/success-test/yes.html" target="_blank" class="btn btn-outline mt-3 mr-3 no-underline">
          <span>Oui</span></a><a href="https://docs.github.io/success-test/no.html" target="_blank" class="btn btn-outline mt-3 mr-3 no-underline"><span>Non</span></a>

Instructions personnalisées en cours d’utilisation

Les instructions du fichier ou des fichiers sont disponibles pour une utilisation par Copilot dès que vous enregistrez le fichier ou les fichiers. Les instructions sont automatiquement ajoutées aux demandes que vous envoyez à Copilot.

In Copilot Chat (github.com/copilot), you can start a conversation that uses repository custom instructions by adding, as an attachment, the repository that contains the instructions file.

Whenever repository custom instructions are used by Copilot Chat, the instructions file is added as a reference for the response that's generated. To find out whether repository custom instructions were used, expand the list of references at the top of a chat response in the Chat panel and check whether the .github/copilot-instructions.md file is listed.

You can click the reference to open the file.

Enabling or disabling custom instructions for révision du code Copilot

Custom instructions are enabled for révision du code Copilot by default but you can disable, or re-enable, them in the repository settings on GitHub.com. This applies to Copilot's use of custom instructions for all code reviews it performs in this repository.

1. Sur GitHub, accédez à la page principale du référentiel.

2. Sous le nom de votre référentiel, cliquez sur Paramètres. Si vous ne voyez pas l’onglet « Paramètres », sélectionnez le menu déroulant , puis cliquez sur Paramètres.

   

3. In the "Code & automation" section of the sidebar, click Copilot, then Code review.

4. Toggle the “Use custom instructions when reviewing pull requests” option on or off.

Further reading

• Prise en charge de différents types d’instructions personnalisées
• Instructions personnalisées—a curated collection of examples
• Utilisation d'instructions personnalisées pour exploiter le potentiel de la révision de code avec Copilot.