[docs] chore: add copilot-instructions.md for agent onboarding#133
[docs] chore: add copilot-instructions.md for agent onboarding#133SamuelHassine merged 4 commits intomainfrom
Conversation
Co-authored-by: SamuelHassine <1334279+SamuelHassine@users.noreply.github.com>
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@copilot Can you add these instructions for code reviews: I don't see them in your copilot-instructions.md... ============================ Security Critical Issues
Performance Red Flags
Code Quality Essentials
Review Style
Always prioritize security vulnerabilities and performance issues that could impact users. Always suggest changes to improve readability. For example, this suggestion seeks to make the code more readable and also makes the validation logic reusable and testable. // Instead of: // Consider: submitButton.enabled = isValidEmail(user.email);And verify again file size and optimize if necessary. |
Co-authored-by: SamuelHassine <1334279+SamuelHassine@users.noreply.github.com>
Added code review guidelines section covering security, performance, code quality, and review style. Also optimized file size from 169 to 185 lines (972 words, ~1.9 pages). Commit: 7372da9 |
Removed code review guidelines section to streamline documentation.
Adds repository onboarding documentation to reduce agent exploration time and CI failures.
Changes
Created
.github/copilot-instructions.md(185 lines, ~2 pages):Repository context: Python monorepo structure (4 injectors + shared code), tech stack (Python 3.11-3.13, Docker, CircleCI, pyoaev)
Build commands: Validated sequences for formatting (isort → black), linting (flake8 --ignore=E,W), testing (python -m unittest per injector), Docker builds (including required --build-context flag for nmap/nuclei)
CI pipeline: CircleCI job breakdown (ensure_formatting, linter, test-{nuclei,nmap,http-query}) with pyoaev version override behavior
Common failures: 5 documented issues with exact fixes (formatting failures, injector_common import errors, Docker build context missing, pyoaev version mismatches)
Project layout: Injector structure (nuclei/, nmap/, http-query/, aws/), shared code dependencies (only nmap/nuclei use injector_common), configuration files (.flake8, .pre-commit-config.yaml)
Code review guidelines: Security critical issues (secrets, SQL injection, XSS, input validation), performance red flags (N+1 queries, inefficient loops, memory leaks), code quality essentials (focused functions, clear naming, error handling), and review style best practices
PR requirements: Title format validation pattern, pre-commit checklist
All commands tested and working. Instructions explicitly tell agents to trust documentation and only search if incomplete/incorrect. File optimized to ~2 pages (972 words).
Original prompt
Your task is to "onboard" this repository to Copilot coding agent by adding a .github/copilot-instructions.md file in the repository that contains information describing how a coding agent seeing it for the first time can work most efficiently.
You will do this task only one time per repository and doing a good job can SIGNIFICANTLY improve the quality of the agent's work, so take your time, think carefully, and search thoroughly before writing the instructions.
- Reduce the likelihood of a coding agent pull request getting rejected by the user due to generating code that fails the continuous integration build, fails a validation pipeline, or having misbehavior. - Minimize bash command and build failures. - Allow the agent to complete its task more quickly by minimizing the need for exploration using grep, find, str_replace_editor, and code search tools. - Instructions must be no longer than 2 pages. - Instructions must not be task specific.Add the following high level details about the codebase to reduce the amount of searching the agent has to do to understand the codebase each time:
Add information about how to build and validate changes so the agent does not need to search and find it each time.
List key facts about the layout and architecture of the codebase to help the agent find where to make changes with minimal searching.
- A description of the major architectural elements of the project, including the relative paths to the main project files, the location
- A description of the checks run prior to check in, including any GitHub workflows, continuous integration builds, or other validation pipelines.
- Document the steps so that the agent can replicate these itself.
- Any explicit validation steps that the agent can consider to have further confidence in its changes.
- Dependencies that aren't obvious from the layout or file structure.
- Finally, fill in any remaining space with detailed lists of the following, in order of priority: the list of files in the repo root, the
- Perform a comprehensive inventory of the codebase. Search for and view: - README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and all other documentation files. - Search the codebase for build steps and indications of workarounds like 'HACK', 'TODO', etc. - All scripts, particularly those pertaining to build and repo or environment setup. - All build and actions pipelines. - All project files. - All configuration and linting files. - For each file: - think: are the contents or the existence of the file information that the coding agent will need to implement, build, test, validate, or demo a code change? - If yes: - Document the command or information in detail. - Explicitly indicate which commands work and which do not and the order in which commands should be run. - Document any errors encountered as well as the steps taken to workaround them. - Document any other steps or information that the agent can use to reduce time spent exploring or trying and failing to run bash commands. - Finally, explicitly instruct the agent to trust the instructions and only perform a search if the information in the instructions is...of configuration files for linting, compilation, testing, and preferences.
contents of the README, the contents of any key source files, the list of files in the next level down of directories, giving priority to the more structurally important and snippets of code from key source files, such as the one containing the main method.
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