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Add guidance for searching multi-line function call chains in Copilot instructions #3138

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Merged
merged 4 commits into from
Oct 9, 2025
Merged

Add guidance for searching multi-line function call chains in Copilot instructions #3138

merged 4 commits into from
Oct 9, 2025

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@Copilot Copilot AI commented Oct 7, 2025 •
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  • Review current copilot-instructions.md file structure
  • Add guidance section about searching for function call chains
  • Provide examples of multi-line Rust method chaining patterns
  • Suggest using ripgrep with multi-line search or AST-based tools
  • Condense guidance to reduce token count per feedback
  • Add rustfmt to cspell.json word list

Summary

Updated the Copilot instructions with concise guidance about searching for multi-line function call chains in Rust code, and added "rustfmt" to the cspell.json dictionary.

Changes:

  • Removed the separate "Searching for Code Patterns" section to reduce token count
  • Condensed all guidance into a single, concise bullet point in the Code Generation section
  • Removed redundant information while keeping the essential message:
    • Awareness that rustfmt formats method chains across multiple lines
    • Suggestion to use multi-line search patterns (rg with -U flag)
    • Alternative approach: search for individual method names
  • Added "rustfmt" to .vscode/cspell.json word list in alphabetical order

This addresses the issue while being much more token-efficient.

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Update Copilot instructions to search for call chains across multiple lines</issue_title>
<issue_description>I've noticed lately that Copilot often greps for function call chains like obj.foo().bar() when, in fact, rustfmt might've reformatted it across multiple lines like,

obj
    .foo()
    .bar();

Update the copilot-instructions.md to take this into account whenever it's grep'ing for function call chains.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes #3137

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@Copilot Copilot AI assigned Copilot and heaths Oct 7, 2025
@Copilot Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Update Copilot instructions for multi-line function calls Add guidance for searching multi-line function call chains in Copilot instructions Oct 7, 2025
@Copilot Copilot AI requested a review from heaths October 7, 2025 20:34
Copilot finished work on behalf of heaths October 7, 2025 20:34
heaths
heaths requested changes Oct 7, 2025
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@Copilot Copilot AI requested a review from heaths October 7, 2025 21:07
Copilot finished work on behalf of heaths October 7, 2025 21:07
heaths
heaths approved these changes Oct 7, 2025
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Worth a try. I thought the individual instructions from before were better.

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heaths commented Oct 7, 2025

@copilot add "rustfmt" to .vscode/cspell.json's word list and make sure all checks pass.

@heaths heaths marked this pull request as ready for review October 7, 2025 21:50
@Copilot Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings October 7, 2025 21:50
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Pull Request Overview

This PR adds guidance to the Copilot instructions to help with searching multi-line function call chains in Rust code. The issue addressed is that Copilot was searching for method chains as single-line patterns when rustfmt typically formats them across multiple lines.

  • Added a bullet point to remind about rustfmt's multi-line formatting of method chains
  • Suggests using multi-line search patterns with rg -U flag or searching for individual method names
  • Provides practical guidance to improve code search accuracy

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Copilot AI commented Oct 7, 2025

@copilot add "rustfmt" to .vscode/cspell.json's word list and make sure all checks pass.

Added "rustfmt" to .vscode/cspell.json word list in alphabetical order. JSON validation passed. (b97f8c0)

@Copilot Copilot AI requested a review from heaths October 7, 2025 21:54
Copilot finished work on behalf of heaths October 7, 2025 21:54
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heaths commented Oct 9, 2025

/check-enforcer evaluate

@heaths heaths enabled auto-merge (squash) October 9, 2025 21:48
@heaths heaths merged commit aded76e into main Oct 9, 2025
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@heaths heaths deleted the copilot/update-copilot-instructions-multi-line-calls branch October 9, 2025 21:48
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@RickWinter RickWinter RickWinter approved these changes

@LarryOsterman LarryOsterman LarryOsterman approved these changes

@ronniegeraghty ronniegeraghty Awaiting requested review from ronniegeraghty ronniegeraghty is a code owner

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@heaths heaths heaths approved these changes

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Update Copilot instructions to search for call chains across multiple lines

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@Copilot @heaths @RickWinter @LarryOsterman