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FEAT: Moving copilot instructions to skills#2086

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rlundeen2 wants to merge 2 commits into
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rlundeen2:rlundeen2-instructions-to-skills
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FEAT: Moving copilot instructions to skills#2086
rlundeen2 wants to merge 2 commits into
microsoft:mainfrom
rlundeen2:rlundeen2-instructions-to-skills

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@rlundeen2

@rlundeen2 rlundeen2 commented Jun 26, 2026

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Skills seem to be better supported than copilot instructions, and in my trial run, agents seem to adhere better.

This PR migrates PyRIT's subsystem-specific guidance from path-triggered instruction files (.github/instructions/*.instructions.md with applyTo frontmatter) to Agent Skills under .github/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Ten "how-to" guides — converters, targets, scorers, scenarios, attacks, models, output, seed datasets, docs-sync, and frontend testing — become on-demand skills the agent invokes when working in the matching area, which surfaces them more reliably than applyTo globs did. The three broad, always-on conventions (style-guide, frontend-style-guide, test) stay as path-based instructions since they apply everywhere.

rlundeen2 and others added 2 commits June 26, 2026 11:38
Migrate 10 subsystem-specific instruction files from .github/instructions/ (path-triggered, applyTo frontmatter) to Agent Skills under .github/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Keep the three broad, always-on conventions (style-guide, frontend-style-guide, test) as path-based instructions. Update copilot-instructions.md with a skill routing table and refresh source docstring references.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
…h-verb

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
@romanlutz

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Doesn't that mean you have to explicitly use a specific agent vs right now you just use vanilla copilot and it works?

@rlundeen2

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Doesn't that mean you have to explicitly use a specific agent vs right now you just use vanilla copilot and it works?

Yeah, idk, we could always duplicate it. I feel like skills are more common and copilot seems to mostly ignore the instructions. But just an idea, I don't feel super strongly about it

@romanlutz

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Doesn't that mean you have to explicitly use a specific agent vs right now you just use vanilla copilot and it works?

Yeah, idk, we could always duplicate it. I feel like skills are more common and copilot seems to mostly ignore the instructions. But just an idea, I don't feel super strongly about it

The question is: do you have to say anything specific or select any particular agent to make it pick up these skills? Or did it do it automatically?

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2 participants