Custom instructions for Copilot

[beneligrossman]

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Copilot Feature Area

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Hi, I added custom instructions file for Copilot, in order to have specific review instructions.
I did exactly as explained here but it doesn't seem to work.
You can see in the attached image the file and the Copilot response without the instructions

I'll be glad for help what I'm missing

[github-actions[bot]]

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[paivareis]

Im having the same problem in VSCode (ps. it was working fine earlier this week).

[TigerZhuZHA]

Now, Im having the same problem in VSCode and JetBrains IDEs. Is this a bug or is there no missing feature?

[masterfloda]

I've got a similar issue, but only with Copilot Code Review on GitHub.com, it works fine in VS Code.
I added a simple .github/copilot-instructions.md file in the master branch:

# GitHub Copilot Code Review Instructions

The goal of the Copilot pull request review is to validate if the PR is ready to review by a human.

## Core Rules

**MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS - THESE ARE NOT OPTIONAL:**

- **ALWAYS use the Review Summary Format** - You MUST use the exact **Review Summary Format** specified at the end of these instructions for every review
- **NEVER approve a PR** - You can leave comments or request review, but NEVER EVER approve

## Review Process

1. **Check build status and merge conflicts first** - Request changes for blocking technical issues
  - Use `mcp_github_get_pull_request` to check if `mergeable` is `true` = All checks passed, no conflicts ✅
2. **Check for missing tests** - If PR adds new functionality without corresponding test files, request changes
  - Use `mcp_github_get_pull_request_files` to identify all test files and examine their patterns
5. **Comment on PR** - Post a comment with your review summary, following the  **Review Summary Format**

*Review Summary Format**: Keep main review comments under 10 lines maximum. Use format:

**Status**: ✅ READY FOR REVIEW / ❌ CHANGES REQUESTED
**Build/Merge**: [status]
**Tests**: [test file count] - [critical violations if any]

• This works with Copilot in VS Code. When prompting it to review https://github.com/<org>/<repo>/pull/<id>, it automatically uses copilot-instructions.md and AGENTS.md as references.

• Requesting a review from Copilot directly on the PR on GitHub.com ignores these instructions and does a default "Pull Request Overview". Interestingly, it does not add the Tip: Customize your code reviews with copilot-instructions.md footer, so it seems to recognize that there are instructions, it just ignores them 🤷

• We have turned Use custom instructions when reviewing pull requests On, following the documentation.

• We have no file exclusion patterns in either the repository or the organization.

[tnorling]

We are having the same issue, instructions file doesn't seem to be recognized by any of the Github Copilot tools (PR Review, Agent, Chat, etc). Weirdly, when I ask Copilot to create a PR with custom instructions then it recognizes the file already exists but the file wasn't attached as context to the original ask.