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[Feedback] Copilot Coding Agent PR Behaviors #83

@huyenltnguyen

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@huyenltnguyen

I’d like to share two observations:

  • Reminder for missing copilot-instructions.md
  • Inclusion of package-lock.json in PRs for new repos

Reminder for missing copilot-instructions.md

Copilot posts a comment and @-mentions the assigner when a repo lacks copilot-instructions.md:

Screenshot Image

I appreciate the nudge, but the direct @-mention in a PR comment feels overly aggressive and adds unnecessary noise. I wonder if the message could be moved to a banner or merge with the existing one:

Screenshot Image

Inclusion of package-lock.json in PRs for new repos

I've noticed that in new repos (without a copilot-instructions.md), if a package manager other than npm is already in use (e.g., pnpm with an existing pnpm-lock.yml), Copilot will still include a package-lock.json file in its PRs. This doesn't seem to occur in mature repositories that also lack copilot-instructions.md, however.

I think Copilot should ideally detect and use the correct package manager (by finding the lock files and checking the packageManager property in package.json) without requiring copilot-instructions.md as a guardrail.

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