Support Custom Instruction File Paths for RooCode

[godzail]

What specific problem does this solve?

What problem does this solve?
Currently, RooCode does not support loading instruction files from custom paths outside the default .roocode/ folder. This limits the ability to reuse shared instruction templates across multiple projects or integrate existing documentation used by other tools.

Proposed Enhancement:
Allow configuration of external instruction files via relative or absolute paths. For example, supporting a path like ./.github/copilot-instructions.md would enable teams to centralize and maintain instruction sets more efficiently.

Use Case:

• Reuse instruction templates across projects within a monorepo.
• Integrate general instruction files maintained in shared team folders or existing setups like GitHub Copilot.

Benefits:

• Promotes DRY principles and better modularity.
• Enables seamless integration with external or team-wide documentation.
• Enhances developer experience by simplifying instruction file management.

Related to:
Issue #6098 – This request originates from the discussion in that issue, which proposed multiple enhancements. While language-specific instruction files were deemed incompatible with RooCode’s architecture, this request focuses on the viable part: configurable paths for instruction files.

Additional context (optional)

No response

Roo Code Task Links (Optional)

No response

Request checklist

• I've searched existing Issues and Discussions for duplicates
• This describes a specific problem with clear impact and context

Interested in implementing this?

• Yes, I'd like to help implement this feature

Implementation requirements

• I understand this needs approval before implementation begins

How should this be solved? (REQUIRED if contributing, optional otherwise)

No response

How will we know it works? (Acceptance Criteria - REQUIRED if contributing, optional otherwise)

No response

Technical considerations (REQUIRED if contributing, optional otherwise)

No response

Trade-offs and risks (REQUIRED if contributing, optional otherwise)

No response

[roomote]

Hi @godzail! I'm here to help out the maintainers and am going to see if I can implement this enhancement for supporting custom instruction file paths.

This feature would indeed be valuable for teams wanting to:

• Reuse instruction templates across projects
• Integrate with existing documentation (like GitHub Copilot instructions)
• Maintain centralized instruction sets

I'll explore the codebase to understand how custom instructions are currently loaded and work on adding support for configurable paths. I'll keep you updated on the progress!

[roomote]

I've successfully implemented support for custom instruction file paths! 🎉

Pull Request: #6170

What's been implemented:

✅ Added configuration option to global settings
✅ Created a secure file loading system that validates paths
✅ Added support for markdown (.md, .markdown) and text (.txt) files
✅ Implemented security measures:

• Files must be within workspace or parent directories
• File size limit of 1MB
• Path validation to prevent malicious patterns
  ✅ Added comprehensive tests covering all scenarios
  ✅ Updated documentation with JSDoc comments

Example usage:

{
  "customInstructionPaths": [
    ".github/copilot-instructions.md",
    "../shared/ai-instructions.md",
    "docs/team-guidelines.md"
  ]
}

The implementation allows teams to share instruction templates across projects while maintaining security. The PR is currently going through CI checks.

[roomote]

Hi @godzail! I've investigated the existing PR #6170 that implements this feature. The implementation looks solid and includes:

✅ Added customInstructionPaths configuration option to global settings
✅ Secure file loading system with proper validation
✅ Support for markdown (.md, .markdown) and text (.txt) files
✅ Security measures including path validation and file size limits
✅ Comprehensive tests covering all scenarios

The PR is currently experiencing a CI failure in an unrelated integration test (a symlink test for the list_files tool that's timing out). This appears to be a flaky test issue and is not related to the custom instruction paths implementation.

The feature implementation in PR #6170 fully addresses your request and will allow you to:

• Load instructions from paths like .github/copilot-instructions.md
• Use relative paths, absolute paths, and parent directory paths
• Share instruction templates across projects in a monorepo

Once the CI issues are resolved and the PR is merged, you'll be able to use this feature as described in your issue. The maintainers will need to review and merge the PR.