Add copilot-globals sync mechanism (closes #59)

[jamditis]

Summary

Hoists Joe's user-level Copilot-PR-review rules out of every project's .github/copilot-instructions.md (which were pushing 3 repos within bytes of the ~4k silent-truncation cap) into a path-scoped .github/instructions/globals.instructions.md file synced from a single source. Per the GitHub Copilot path-specific instructions docs, the bot reads *.instructions.md files in addition to copilot-instructions.md, with applyTo glob and excludeAgent opt-out support.

Architecture explicitly does not slice any project's CLAUDE.md. CLAUDE.md remains the single source of truth for primary coding assistants (Claude Code, etc.) and is not bound by the 4k Copilot cap.

What's in this PR

File	Role
scripts/sync-copilot-globals.py	CLI: reads source, writes globals.instructions.md to each subscribed repo. Idempotent. Supports --dry-run, --only NAME, --source PATH, --targets PATH.
scripts/sync-targets.txt	Subscribed repos list (initially just tools/).
.github/instructions/globals.instructions.md	Generated output. Has applyTo: \"**\" frontmatter so Copilot reads it on every PR.
.github/copilot-instructions.md	Globals section removed (was 2886 chars, now 2845). Tightened favicon/OG rule scope to resource-kit/docs/**/*.html.
CLAUDE.md	Documents the sync workflow + the rule that CLAUDE.md never gets sliced.

Source file

The script reads from ~/.claude/copilot-globals.md (per-user, not in this repo). Initial content (3kb): writing style, banned words, AI-authorship ban, code-quality basics. The script errors clearly if the source is missing.

Test plan

• python3 -c \"import ast; ast.parse(open(...).read())\" — syntax clean
• --help renders the docstring
• First run creates the file
• Re-run reports unchanged: ...
• --dry-run previews without writing
• --source /tmp/missing.md errors with non-zero exit
• --only nonexistent errors with non-zero exit
• wc -c .github/copilot-instructions.md confirms reduction (2886 → 2845)
• wc -c .github/instructions/globals.instructions.md confirms 3081 chars (well under 4k)
• No CI configured for tools/ — Copilot bot review covers manual verification

Followups (separate PRs, one per repo)

After this lands, three follow-up PRs add each over-cap repo to sync-targets.txt and slim its .github/copilot-instructions.md:

• rosen-frontend (currently 3995 chars — 5 chars from cap)
• class (3993 chars)
• houseofjawn-bot (3992 chars)

Other repos adopt opportunistically (worth doing on socialsnag, claude-skills-journalism, reroute-nj, cjs2026 too — all close enough to cap that a future rule addition could silently truncate).

Reference

MEMORY.md → reference_copilot_pr_review_reading_scope.md for the underlying constraint, and the verified GitHub Copilot path-specific instructions docs (read 2026-05-02) confirming applyTo / excludeAgent schema.

[jamditis]

Closing — architecturally superseded by PR #60 (Slim global rules to bot-enforceable subset).

PR #60's merge commit message captured the lesson cleanly: "Copilot's PR review bot enforces code-bug-shaped rules but won't flag English-prose conventions like sentence case or banned words." That's the same constraint memorialized in MEMORY.md → feedback_copilot_review_is_bug_finder_not_style_linter.md.

This PR's premise was that the ~1700 chars of English-prose globals (sentence case, banned words, etc.) needed a sync mechanism to live in a separate path-scoped Copilot-readable file. PR #60 dissolved that premise by removing those rules from Copilot-facing files entirely — they belong in CLAUDE.md (which the primary assistant reads and enforces), not in copilot-instructions.md or globals.instructions.md (which Copilot reads but won't act on for prose conventions).

After PR #60, master's .github/copilot-instructions.md is 2886 chars with only 2 bot-enforceable global rules (AI-attribution, favicon/OG) — well under cap with room to grow.

What to do for the 3 over-cap repos instead

The actual remaining followup is to apply PR #60's pattern to rosen-frontend, class, and houseofjawn-bot — slim each to bot-enforceable rules only, removing the English-prose globals. That's a per-repo slim PR, not a sync mechanism. Filing as a separate issue.

Cleanup

• ~/.claude/copilot-globals.md and tools/scripts/sync-copilot-globals.py are not needed
• tools/.github/instructions/globals.instructions.md will not be created on master

Procedural lesson going into MEMORY: when starting work in a repo I haven't touched this session, git fetch && git pull --ff-only before git checkout -b so I don't branch off a stale base and step on freshly-merged work. Filed PR #62 against the same stale base — rebasing now.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Introduces a cross-repo sync mechanism to keep Copilot PR review “global” rules in a single source and distribute them into a path-scoped .github/instructions/*.instructions.md file, reducing pressure on the ~4k truncation cap for .github/copilot-instructions.md.

Changes:

• Added scripts/sync-copilot-globals.py plus scripts/sync-targets.txt to sync ~/.claude/copilot-globals.md into subscribed repos.
• Added .github/instructions/globals.instructions.md (with applyTo: "**") and removed the duplicated “globals” block from .github/copilot-instructions.md.
• Documented the workflow and rationale in CLAUDE.md.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
scripts/sync-targets.txt	Adds a subscribed-repo list consumed by the sync script.
scripts/sync-copilot-globals.py	Implements the CLI that renders and writes the generated Copilot globals file per repo.
CLAUDE.md	Documents the new cross-repo Copilot-globals sync workflow and boundaries.
.github/instructions/globals.instructions.md	Adds the generated, path-scoped global Copilot instructions file.
.github/copilot-instructions.md	Removes duplicated global rules and links to the generated instructions file.