How to Teach GitHub Copilot About Your Codebase

What happened

GitHub’s beginner guide explains four ways to tailor Copilot to a project: custom instructions for repository conventions, agent skills for repeatable procedures, custom agents for broader specialized tasks, and MCP servers for connecting to external tools and data. It recommends starting with a convention you often explain and adding it to `.github/copilot-instructions.md`.

The story so far

GitHub published a beginner guide explaining four ways to tailor Copilot to a project, recommending that users start by adding a convention they frequently explain to `.github/copilot-instructions.md`. The guide distinguishes each option by its purpose: custom instructions communicate repository conventions, agent skills package repeatable procedures, custom agents provide specialized guidance for larger tasks, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers connect Copilot to external tools and data sources.

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