Standard Naming Convention for Copilot Instruction Files

[fielding]

Standard Naming Convention for Copilot Instruction Files

As we continue to develop and refine this repository, one of the key considerations is establishing a standard naming convention for the Copilot instruction files. Currently, we're using .vscode/copilot-instructions.md as the standard file name and location.

Purpose of This Discussion:

• Gather Feedback: We want to hear your thoughts on this naming convention.
• Explore Alternatives: Are there other naming conventions or file locations that might be more effective?
• Establish a Community Standard: By collaborating, we can agree on a standard that benefits everyone.

Points to Consider:

• Consistency with Other Tools: Does the naming convention align with common practices in other tools or extensions?
• Ease of Use: Is the file name and location intuitive for users of different experience levels?
• Compatibility: Are there any issues with how GitHub Copilot reads or processes instruction files in certain locations?
• Ease of Discoverability: This is my main personal motivation. It's fun to see what others are doing sometimes.

Questions for the Community:

1. Do you prefer .vscode/copilot-instructions.md, or is there a better alternative?
2. Should the instruction file be placed in a different directory, such as the project's root directory?
3. Have you encountered any issues with the current naming convention?

How to Participate:

• Share your thoughts, experiences, and suggestions by replying to this discussion.
• If you have alternative proposals, please explain the reasoning behind them.

[katriendg]

Thanks for starting this discussion. Would love to hear more input from folks following or preferring certain approaches.

What I'm seeing is we use many different contexts setting .md files which we have not yet standardized on:

Locations

• Do we put the context/instruction file within the application folder (like deploy /src/language/projectname, etc. The latter leading to polluting the folder structure with copilot context information.
• Do we standardize in a central location such as .vscode/copilot or .github/copilot, .github/...

File name conventions

• .copilot-someinstruction.md
• copilot-someinstruction.md - no use of initial .
• copilot.someinstruction.md
• Copilot template files which we use to build a documentation of our feature, and then use that documentation to generate a specific piece of code implementation: /templates/myfunction.md which is added to Copilot context.

I'd be really interested in learning what folks are finding most efficient. We are still experimenting with these above different approaches.