GitHub Copilot custom instructions
https://docs.github.com/copilot/customizing-copilot/adding-custom-instructions-for-github-copilot
.github/copilot-instructions.md (repo-wide) plus .github/instructions/*.instructions.md path-scoped via applyTo glob (optional excludeAgent); Copilot agents also honor AGENTS.md (nearest in tree) or a root CLAUDE.md/GEMINI.md.
Active · Verified 2026-10-22 · fresh as of 2026-10-22 · 34 cited facts, 0 with a third-party source · 1 recorded change · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Tier
- T1
- Section
- File-backed / editor paradigms
- Created
- 2024 (public preview launched October 2024 in VS Code; .github/copilot-instructions.md format) vendor fix
- Latest release
- n/a — vendor feature of GitHub Copilot (not a versioned repo); rolling updates via Copilot changelog fix
- License
- n/a — feature of GitHub Copilot (proprietary); instructions files are user-owned under repo license fix
- GitHub
- not applicable — docs feature, no GitHub repo repo fix
- Pricing
- not applicable — file pattern included in GitHub Copilot subscription ($10/mo individual; $19/mo business) repo fix
- Funding
- not applicable — not commercial fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-22 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
Memory taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- cross-session
- update
- overwrite
- unit
- document
- governance
- user-controllable
- conflict
- manual
When to use
Optimised for: simplicity / git-versioned / human-readable
Anti-fit: not for non-coding / non-IDE use cases
Pros & cons
Pros
Reaches the largest installed base of AI-using developers; integrated where developers already work; backed by GitHub's persistence.
Cons
Repository-scoped instructions only — no persistent learning; less expressive than Cursor Rules' selector model.
Claims & capabilities
Vendor-supported across VS Code, JetBrains, GitHub.com chat.
Technical surface
- API surface
- not applicable — IDE feature
- Backend storage
- file (.github/copilot-instructions.md)
- Deployment
- not applicable — GitHub-hosted; no separate deployment
- Embedding model
- not applicable — instruction file
- Multi-tenancy
- hard-isolation (per repo/org)
- MCP
- not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm (no API surface)
- A2A
- not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm
- OpenTelemetry
- not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm
Compare GitHub Copilot custom instructions with…
Alternatives to GitHub Copilot custom instructions → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other file-backed / editor paradigms in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Cline .clinerules T2
Markdown rule files in a workspace .clinerules/ (or .cline/rules/) directory plus global rules in ~/Documents/Cline/Rules; workspace wins on conflict. Per-rule toggles, conditional rules via YAML 'paths' globs, and AGENTS.md / .cursorrules / .windsurfrules are also read.
- OpenClaw memory T3
Memory system of the viral OpenClaw personal agent: plain Markdown files (USER.md, MEMORY.md, daily memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md notes, DREAMS.md) with memory_search/memory_get tools, automatic pre-compaction flush and a 'dreaming' sweep that distils daily notes into long-term memory; pluggable engines (LanceDB, Honcho, wiki). spawned an ecosystem of memory plugins (memory-lancedb-pro, gbrain, MemClaw)
- AGENTS.md T1
Open Markdown 'README for agents' at repo root; nested files in subprojects take precedence (closest wins). Holds build/test commands, conventions and PR rules. Stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation); supported by Codex, Jules, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Devin/Windsurf and others.
- Aider CONVENTIONS.md / .aider.conf.yml T2
CONVENTIONS.md (any name, loaded via --read or read: in config); .aider.conf.yml (home / git-root / cwd, last wins); .aiderignore (gitignore-syntax).
- Basic Memory T3
Local-first MCP memory where each memory is a Markdown note with observations and wikilink relations that form a traversable knowledge graph, indexed with SQLite (optional Postgres vectors), plus an optional hosted cloud. widely used MCP memory server with a paid cloud tier
- CLAUDE.md T1
CLAUDE.md files (managed, user, project, local scopes) concatenated into context at session start, with @imports and path-scoped .claude/rules/; complemented by Claude-written auto memory (MEMORY.md index). Project-root file re-injected after /compact.
Sources (33 cited facts, 0 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is .github/copilot-instructions.md + path-scoped repo
- What it does & what's distinct .github/copilot-instructions.md (repo-wide) plus .github/instructions/*.instructions.md … repo
- Claims / benefits Vendor-supported across VS Code, JetBrains, GitHub.com chat. repo
- Modalities text repo
- Created 2024 (public preview launched October 2024 in VS Code; .github/copilot-instructions.md f… vendor
- GitHub not applicable — docs feature, no GitHub repo repo
- Pricing not applicable — file pattern included in GitHub Copilot subscription ($10/mo individual… repo
- Deployment not applicable — GitHub-hosted; no separate deployment repo
- Founders / pedigree GitHub / Microsoft repo
- Memory volume / scale no scale claim — markdown files in repo repo
- Backend storage file (.github/copilot-instructions.md) repo
- Multi-tenancy hard-isolation (per repo/org) repo
- Encryption at-rest + in-transit repo
- SSO / RBAC SSO + RBAC repo
- Consistency strong repo
- Versioning snapshots repo
- Tombstoning hard-delete supported repo
- Schema evolution free-form / no schema repo
- Namespace primitives hierarchical repo
- Contradiction handling version both with timestamps repo
- Forgetting policy user-controlled forget repo
- Import / export Markdown / plain text (the file itself is the export) repo
- Validated verticals coding agents only - software engineering teams repo
- Time to running <10min (drop a file in repo) repo
- Anti-fit not for non-coding / non-IDE use cases repo
- Optimised for simplicity / git-versioned / human-readable repo
- Adjacent infrastructure requires the corresponding IDE / editor repo
- Pros Reaches the largest installed base of AI-using developers; integrated where developers a… repo
- Cons Repository-scoped instructions only — no persistent learning; less expressive than Curso… repo
- Project & sources docs repo
- architecture-deployment-locus ide repo
- positioning-platform-vs-product product repo
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)