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GitHub Copilot#

Markers: .github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/copilot/, or .github/instructions/ in the project root for project-scope; ~/.github/copilot-instructions.md for user-scope. Bare .github/ alone is not a marker, it appears in nearly every repo for GitHub Actions.

Install location:

  • User-scoped: ~/.github/copilot-instructions.md, VS Code can be configured to read this via the github.copilot.chat.codeGeneration.instructions setting (it isn't auto-discovered like the project file is).
  • Project-scoped: <cwd>/.github/copilot-instructions.md, Copilot's canonical instructions location, auto-loaded by VS Code's Copilot Chat. Recommended for team-shared repos, commit the file.

How to invoke after install:

Reload VS Code (or restart Copilot Chat). The instructions file is auto-loaded for the workspace. Then ask Copilot Chat "run safelint" / "lint with safelint", same prompts as the other clients.

First-time bootstrap note: Copilot's auto-detection signals (.github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/copilot/, .github/instructions/) only match an existing Copilot setup. For first-time installs on a fresh project, pass --client copilot --project explicitly.

Manual install:

safelint skill install --client copilot --project   # canonical, auto-loaded by VS Code
safelint skill install --client copilot             # user-global, requires settings tweak

See Manual install for the full flag reference.