awesome-copilot/README.md

🤖 Awesome GitHub Copilot Customizations

Enhance your GitHub Copilot experience with community-contributed instructions, prompts, and configurations. Get consistent AI assistance that follows your team's coding standards and project requirements.

🎯 GitHub Copilot Customization Features

GitHub Copilot provides three main ways to customize AI responses and tailor assistance to your specific workflows, team guidelines, and project requirements:

🔧 Custom Instructions	📝 Reusable Prompts	🎭 Custom Chat Modes
Define common guidelines for tasks like code generation, reviews, and commit messages. Describe how tasks should be performed Benefits: • Automatic inclusion in every chat request • Repository-wide consistency • Multiple implementation options	Create reusable, standalone prompts for specific tasks. Describe what should be done with optional task-specific guidelines Benefits: • Eliminate repetitive prompt writing • Shareable across teams • Support for variables and dependencies	Define chat behavior, available tools, and codebase interaction patterns within specific boundaries for each request Benefits: • Context-aware assistance • Tool configuration • Role-specific workflows

💡 Pro Tip: Custom instructions only affect Copilot Chat (not inline code completions). You can combine all three customization types - use custom instructions for general guidelines, prompt files for specific tasks, and chat modes to control the interaction context.

📝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on how to submit new instructions and prompts.

📋 Custom Instructions

Team and project-specific instructions to enhance GitHub Copilot's behavior for specific technologies and coding practices:

• Angular Development Instructions - Angular-specific coding standards and best practices
• ASP.NET REST API Development - Guidelines for building REST APIs with ASP.NET
• Azure Functions Typescript - TypeScript patterns for Azure Functions
• Bicep Code Best Practices - Infrastructure as Code with Bicep
• Blazor - Blazor component and application patterns
• Cmake Vcpkg - C++ project configuration and package management
• Copilot Process tracking Instructions - See process Copilot is following where you can edit this to reshape the interaction or save when follow up may be needed
• Genaiscript - AI-powered script generation guidelines
• Generate Modern Terraform Code For Azure - Guidelines for generating modern Terraform code for Azure
• Markdown - Documentation and content creation standards
• Next.js + Tailwind Development Instructions - Next.js + Tailwind development standards and instructions
• Python Coding Conventions - Python coding conventions and guidelines

💡 Usage: Copy these instructions to your .github/copilot-instructions.md file or create task-specific .instructions.md files in your workspace.

🎯 Reusable Prompts

Ready-to-use prompt templates for specific development scenarios and tasks. These .prompt.md files can be executed directly in VS Code chat as slash commands or through the Chat: Run Prompt command.

Backend Development

• ASP.NET Minimal API with OpenAPI - Generate API endpoints with proper documentation
• Entity Framework Core Best Practices - Database operations and ORM patterns
• Multi-Stage Dockerfile - Optimized container builds for any technology

Testing & Quality

• C# Async Programming - Asynchronous programming best practices
• MSTest Best Practices - MSTest unit testing with data-driven tests
• NUnit Best Practices - NUnit testing patterns and assertions
• XUnit Best Practices - XUnit testing with modern C# features
• JavaScript/TypeScript Jest - Jest testing patterns, mocking, and structure

Documentation & Project Management

• Comment Code Generate Tutorial - Transform code into educational content
• Generate Specs as Issues - Convert requirements into GitHub issues
• My Issues
• My Pull Requests

💡 Usage: Use /prompt-name in VS Code chat or run Chat: Run Prompt command. Prompt files support variables like ${input:name} for dynamic content.

🧩 Custom Chat Modes

You can define your own chat modes for specific scenarios, such as planning a new feature or getting the AI to behave a certain way when in a particular mode. Custom chat modes are defined in Markdown files with the .chatmode.md suffix and can be stored in the .github folder of your workspace or placed in your user profile. They should up in the "Ask/Edit/Agent" dropdown in the chat view.

• Database Administrator Chat Mode - Work with PostgreSQL databases using the PostgreSQL extension.
• Planning mode instructions - Generate an implementation plan for new features or refactoring existing code.
• 4.1 Beast Mode - A custom prompt to get GPT 4.1 to behave like a top-notch coding agent.

Use Chat > Configure Chat Modes from the Command Palette to add/edit custom modes.

📚 Additional Resources

• VS Code Copilot Customization Documentation - Official Microsoft documentation
• GitHub Copilot Chat Documentation - Complete chat feature guide
• Custom Chat Modes - Advanced chat configuration
• VS Code Settings - General VS Code configuration guide

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Code of Conduct

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

™️ Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.