copilot-config

Personal GitHub Copilot CLI configuration.

Cross-machine setup for:

• copilot-instructions.md — biases the agent toward IDE MCP tools, plus a few general preferences. Loaded automatically from ~/.copilot/.
• mcp-config.json — JetBrains MCP server config (Rider + IntelliJ indexer and debugger). Dead-port entries fail-soft, so the same file works on every machine that runs at least one JetBrains IDE.
• skills/ — two skills (ide-index-mcp, jetbrains-debugger) telling the agent how to use the JetBrains MCP tools and what to do when they're not connected.

Everything is plain text. No secrets.

Install on a new machine

git clone https://github.com/AsafMah/copilot-config.git
cd copilot-config
# macOS / Linux
./bootstrap.sh
# Windows / PowerShell
pwsh ./bootstrap.ps1

The bootstrap copies into ~/.copilot/, backing up anything it would overwrite to <file>.bak.<timestamp>. Re-running is safe and idempotent. Pass --force (or -Force on PowerShell) to skip the overwrite prompts.

After install, restart any running copilot session for the new config to take effect (/restart in the CLI works too).

Update on an existing machine

cd copilot-config
git pull
./bootstrap.sh -Force   # or: pwsh ./bootstrap.ps1 -Force

Update from ~/.copilot/

If you tweak files in-place and want to commit the result back:

cp ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md ./copilot-instructions.md
cp -R ~/.copilot/skills/ide-index-mcp ./skills/
cp -R ~/.copilot/skills/jetbrains-debugger ./skills/
cp ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json ./mcp-config.json
git add -A && git commit -m "..." && git push

What this repo deliberately does NOT manage

~/.copilot/ also contains machine-specific state that should never be synced across machines:

• session-state/, session-store.db* — session history & checkpoints
• logs/, crash-context/
• config.json, settings.json, permissions-config.json — local prefs
• installed-plugins/, plugin-data/, jb/, ide/, pkg/, restart/

The bootstrap script touches only the three top-level items listed above.

JetBrains MCP port reference

The JetBrains MCP plugin (Index + Debugger) binds to incrementing ports per running IDE instance:

IDE instance	Index port	Debugger port
first	29170	29190
second	29182	29202
third	29194	29214
…	+12	+12

The shipped mcp-config.json covers the first two instances (one IntelliJ

• one Rider running simultaneously). If you routinely run more, add entries following the same pattern and re-run bootstrap.

To check which ports are live on a given machine:

# Windows / PowerShell
Get-NetTCPConnection -State Listen |
  Where-Object { $_.LocalPort -ge 29170 -and $_.LocalPort -lt 29250 } |
  Select-Object LocalPort, OwningProcess

# macOS / Linux
lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN | awk '$9 ~ /:291[0-9][0-9]$/'