AI Coding Instructions

Reusable coding instructions and prompt templates for AI coding agents. All canonical content lives in copilot/instructions/.

Available instructions

Name	Description	Instruction Name	Type
Consolidated	All best practices in one file	—	General
Code Review	Expert code review guidelines	code-review	Review
Commit Message	Conventional Commits format	commit-message	Git
Pull Request	PR description best practices	pull-request	Git
General Development	Universal development practices	general	General
JavaScript/TypeScript	Scoped to JS/TS files (incl. Bun)	javascript	Language
Go	Scoped to Go files	go	Language
Bash/Shell	Scoped to shell scripts	shell	Language
Python	Scoped to Python files (FastAPI)	python	Language
TypeScript Monorepo	Complete TS monorepo setup	ts-monorepo	Architecture
Docker	Scoped to Dockerfiles	docker	Platform
Kubernetes/Helm	Scoped to K8s YAML files	kubernetes	Platform
GitHub Actions	Scoped to workflow files	github-actions	CI/CD
Terraform/IaC	Scoped to Terraform files	terraform	Platform

Prompts

Name	Description	Prompt Name
Repository Review	Full repo analysis: quality, security, performance	review

---

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

How it works

GitHub Copilot in VS Code reads instructions from two locations:

File	Purpose
.github/copilot-instructions.md	Global workspace system prompt — always active
.github/instructions/*.instructions.md	Scoped instructions — activated by applyTo glob frontmatter

Setup

Option 1 — Single consolidated file (quickest)

curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/copilot-instructions.md" \
  -o ".github/copilot-instructions.md"

Option 2 — Scoped instructions (recommended for multi-tech repos)

mkdir -p .github/instructions
INSTRUCTIONS="javascript docker kubernetes github-actions"
for name in $INSTRUCTIONS; do
  curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/${name}.instructions.md" \
    -o ".github/instructions/${name}.instructions.md"
done

Wire features via settings.json

Add to .vscode/settings.json to route each Copilot feature to the right instruction file:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.codeGeneration.instructions": [
    { "file": ".github/instructions/general.instructions.md" }
  ],
  "github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions": [
    { "file": ".github/instructions/commit-message.instructions.md" }
  ],
  "github.copilot.chat.pullRequestDescriptionGeneration.instructions": [
    { "file": ".github/instructions/pull-request.md" }
  ],
  "github.copilot.chat.reviewSelection.instructions": [
    { "file": ".github/instructions/code-review.instructions.md" }
  ]
}

Git workflow instructions (commit + PR)

mkdir -p .github/instructions
curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/commit-message.instructions.md" \
  -o ".github/instructions/commit-message.instructions.md"
curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/pull-request.md" \
  -o ".github/instructions/pull-request.md"
curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/code-review.instructions.md" \
  -o ".github/instructions/code-review.instructions.md"

Prompts

mkdir -p .github/prompts
curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/prompts/review.md" \
  -o ".github/prompts/review.md"

---

Claude Code

Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md at the repository root. Point it at the consolidated instructions:

curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/copilot-instructions.md" \
  -o "CLAUDE.md"

---

AGENTS.md (OpenAI Codex / GitHub Copilot coding agent)

AGENTS.md at the repository root is read by OpenAI Codex and any agent following the AGENTS.md convention:

curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/copilot-instructions.md" \
  -o "AGENTS.md"

---

Recommended setup by project type

JavaScript / TypeScript

mkdir -p .github/instructions
for name in javascript docker github-actions; do
  curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/${name}.instructions.md" \
    -o ".github/instructions/${name}.instructions.md"
done

Python (FastAPI)

mkdir -p .github/instructions
for name in python docker github-actions; do
  curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/${name}.instructions.md" \
    -o ".github/instructions/${name}.instructions.md"
done

Kubernetes / DevOps

mkdir -p .github/instructions
for name in kubernetes docker github-actions terraform shell; do
  curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/${name}.instructions.md" \
    -o ".github/instructions/${name}.instructions.md"
done

Go

mkdir -p .github/instructions
for name in go docker github-actions; do
  curl -fsSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/this-is-tobi/tools/main/copilot/instructions/${name}.instructions.md" \
    -o ".github/instructions/${name}.instructions.md"
done

---

Troubleshooting

Instructions not applied (GitHub Copilot)

• File must be in .github/ (or .github/instructions/ for scoped files)
• Scoped files must end in .instructions.md
• Reload VS Code after adding new files or changing settings
• Check applyTo frontmatter — patterns are glob-style and case-sensitive:

---
applyTo: "**/*.{js,ts}"
---

Instruction file too large

Split the content across multiple scoped files. Each one is only loaded when its applyTo pattern matches the file being edited.