Is it possible to use copilot instructions from the git repo root instead of the opened folder?

[stevebeauge]

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Hi,

I'm using github copilot in the context of a medium sized monorepo. Because of performance issues, I often only open the few packages I need to complete my task (the repo has 30 packages, but most of time only 3 or 4 packages are actually needed).

I set up an instruction file at the root of the repository (.github/copilot-instructions.md).

If I open the whole repo inside VS Code, the instructions are provided to copilot (can see the instructions in the references menu)

If I open wanted packages as a multi root workspace, the instructions are not used.

Is there a way to workaround this?

Thanks

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[andredisa]

Hi @stevebeauge,

I understand your issue with GitHub Copilot instructions not being used when opening packages as a multi-root workspace. Unfortunately, GitHub Copilot currently does not support using the .github/copilot-instructions.md file in multi-root workspaces.

Possible Workaround:
You can try using the @workspace prefix in your Copilot Chat prompts to provide context about the entire codebase. This might help Copilot understand the instructions even when working with a subset of packages.

Example:
@workspace Please follow the instructions in the .github/copilot-instructions.md file for this task.
Alternative Solution:
Consider opening the entire repository in VS Code when you need Copilot to use the instructions file. This ensures that Copilot has access to the full context provided by the instructions.

[stevebeauge]

It would be nice to add this option in copilot (looking upward in the directory structure)

As an alternative, I can put a symlink in each package to be sure copilot found an instruction file w/o having to worry about its content. A bit redundant thought. Thanks for your answer.

[bamurtaugh]

Thanks for your feedback and for using Copilot in VS Code! For any future feature requests or bugs on Copilot in VS Code specifically, it'd be a huge help if you could file them in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot-release/issues. I'd also recommend checking out our docs: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/overview.

[stevebeauge]

Thanks for the link. I used this community to ask a question, to know whether or not I missed something before creating a feature request.

[softwareonair]

you might try multiple .code-workspace files to include/exclude folders from github copilot

[stevebeauge]

Sorry I don't get you. How can you control copilot using workspace ?

[Spenhouet]

I'm running into the same problem.

I tried configuring the folder the code-workspace file is at as the .github folder and adding the instruction file there. But the agent can not find the instruction file.

{
  "folders": [
    { "path": "./", "name": ".github" },
    ...
}

Worth monitoring these issues:

• Change location of instructions.md #7563
• Multi-Repository Support in Copilot Agent (VS Code Multi-root Workspaces) #5276