copilot-instructions-template

Health check procedures D1–D14 for the Audit agent — structural validation, attention budget, version checks, workspace integrity, and static audit

Configure and manage Model Context Protocol servers for external tool access

Review a UI for accessibility — WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, semantic HTML, ARIA usage, keyboard navigation, focus management, colour contrast, and screen reader compatibility

Design or review a REST or GraphQL API — resource modeling, versioning strategy, error contract, OpenAPI/schema-first workflow, and security baseline

Generate a CHANGELOG.md entry from staged changes, a commit range, or a PR diff — following Keep a Changelog format with conventional commit classification

Set up and audit environment variable management — create .env.example, add startup validation, separate secrets from config, and document every variable

Generate or update onboarding documentation — README, CONTRIBUTING guide, dev environment setup script, and new-developer validation checklist

Profile a slow function, endpoint, or query — identify hot paths, N+1 queries, and memory pressure, then apply targeted optimizations with before/after measurements

Systematically extract a function, class, module, or service from existing code — identify boundaries, write tests before moving, verify behaviour is unchanged

Catalog technical debt in a codebase — TODO/FIXME comments, deprecated API usage, dead code, high-complexity hotspots, and missing tests — then prioritize for action

Step-by-step git workflows for commit, push, tag/release, branch, sync, stash, merge-conflict, and pull-request operations — including MCP tool preferences

Inspect active GitHub Actions workflows before commit or push, run matching local checks for staged or unpushed files, ask which missing tools to install via askQuestions, and fix in-scope issues so the Commit agent can proceed.

Write a commit message following the Conventional Commits specification with scope and body

Create a new MCP server — clarify purpose, choose transport, scaffold, implement, test, and register

Set up browser testing — dual path with built-in browser tools (interactive) or Playwright (CI); detect framework, scaffold, verify

Update project dependencies across npm/pip/cargo/go/maven/gradle — check for outdated packages, apply updates, run vulnerability scan, verify tests pass

Scaffold a production-ready Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml for a project — multi-stage builds, non-root user, health checks, and .dockerignore

Discover, evaluate, install, test, and manage agent plugins for VS Code Copilot

Set up and manage GitHub Actions workflows that use Copilot coding agents for automated PR handling and issue resolution

Tighten prose by shortening sentences, trimming repetition, and reducing token-heavy wording without losing required meaning

Create an Architectural Decision Record (ADR) to document a significant design or technology choice

Audit VS Code extensions against the current project stack and recommend keep/add/remove actions

Triage a GitHub issue by classifying severity, labelling waste category, proposing next action, and drafting a structured response

Review a pull request using Lean waste categories and structured severity ratings

Security audit checks (S1–S10) — OWASP Top 10, secret detection, injection patterns, supply chain, shell hardening, deserialization, CVE scan

Create a new agent skill following the Agent Skills open standard

Discover, activate, and manage agent skills following the Skill Protocol

Audit test coverage, identify gaps, and recommend local tests plus CI workflows

Find, build, or adapt automation tools following the Tool Protocol decision tree

Modern C++ coding conventions — naming, RAII, smart pointers, const correctness, and standard library usage

C++ memory safety and undefined behaviour prevention — bounds checking, lifetime management, and sanitizer usage

Dockerfile and Docker Compose conventions — layer ordering, security, health checks, and .dockerignore

Idiomatic Go conventions — naming, package design, error handling, concurrency, and project layout

Java coding conventions — naming, records, Optional, streams, logging, and dependency injection

PEP 8 style, import ordering, docstrings, virtual environment, and packaging conventions for Python projects

Common Python security pitfalls — injection, deserialization, path traversal, and dependency management

React accessibility conventions — semantic HTML, ARIA, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support

React component conventions — composition, hooks, state management, performance, and Next.js patterns

Idiomatic Rust conventions — ownership, naming, module structure, documentation, and dependency management

TypeScript coding conventions — imports, naming, module structure, error handling, and ESLint/Prettier integration