Add documentation for GitHub Copilot instruction types and skills [co…#14155
Add documentation for GitHub Copilot instruction types and skills [co…#14155andrewscfc wants to merge 2 commits into
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| ### A note on `AGENTS.md` | ||
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| You may also see an `AGENTS.md` file referenced elsewhere. It is a cross-tool instructions file designed to be recognized by multiple AI agents, including non-Copilot tools. For our work, prefer `.github/copilot-instructions.md`: it serves the same always-on, repository-wide purpose for Copilot and has broader, more reliable support across Copilot tools (including Copilot code review). Use `.github/copilot-instructions.md` as the single source of repository-wide instructions. |
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We need to stick to one of these, we currently have both, and it can cause issues https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/customize-copilot/add-custom-instructions/add-repository-instructions#custom-instructions-in-use
I'm leaning more towards the generic widely supported AGENTS.md file instead of the copilot one, there's literally no difference
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It claims AGENTS.md is ignored by copilot reviews so that's one argument against?
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Looks like they've given support for that a week ago https://blog.github.com/changelog/2026-06-18-copilot-code-review-agents-md-support-and-ui-improvements/#%f0%9f%93%9d-agents-md-support
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Which means there might be some context confusion currently for the robot
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One argument for standardising on copilot-instructions is that (for now) Agents.md colocated with code is experimental; so there is no supported mechanism to do instructions scoped to individual files or directories with Agents.md, we can though do this with copilot-instructions (we are not allowed to use experimental copilot features as a reminder).
So it would make sense to use the same approach for repo wide and file/directory specific instructions with copilot-instructions.
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That's fine if we're gonna use that feature, let's just stick to one as currently there's going to be clashing context issues at the moment, lets delete AGENTS.md
2 participants
…pilot]
Resolves JIRA: NA
Summary
I have struggled to find a suitable doc covering
copilot-instructions.mdvs. skills so this is a prompt generated doc to give guidance to engineers on instruction and skill use.I have tried to ensure real docs are cited so we can be assured the guidance is accurate, please double check this in review.
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