Copilot Docs

This walks you through setting up repository-specific instructions for GitHub Copilot by creating a .github/copilot-instructions.md file. You get practical templates for common sections like tech stack context, code standards, naming conventions, and API patterns. The examples are concrete, like showing you how to specify TypeScript strict mode preferences or standardize your Next.js response formats. Most useful when you're onboarding a team to a codebase or have strong opinions about code style that you want Copilot to respect. The patterns here are straightforward enough that you'll probably adapt them once and forget about them, which is exactly what good configuration should let you do.

skills.sh installs: 147
GitHub stars: 296
last updated: Jun 10, 2026

View on GitHub

Install

$ npx -y skills add hoodini/ai-agents-skills --skill copilot-docs --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

GitHub Copilot Custom Instructions

Configure repository-specific instructions for GitHub Copilot.

Quick Start

Create .github/copilot-instructions.md in your repository:

# Copilot Instructions

## Code Style
- Use TypeScript with strict mode
- Prefer functional components with hooks
- Use Tailwind CSS for styling

## Project Context
This is a Next.js 14 app using the App Router.
API routes are in `app/api/`.

Effective Patterns

Project Context

# Project Context

## Tech Stack
- Next.js 14 with App Router
- TypeScript 5.3+
- Tailwind CSS 3.4
- Prisma ORM with PostgreSQL

## Architecture
- `app/` - Next.js App Router pages and API routes
- `components/` - React components
- `lib/` - Utility functions and shared code
- `prisma/` - Database schema and migrations

Code Standards

# Code Standards

## TypeScript
- Enable strict mode
- Prefer `interface` over `type` for object shapes
- Use explicit return types on functions

## React
- Use functional components exclusively
- Prefer named exports
- Extract hooks to `hooks/` directory

SKILL.md on GitHub