Customize AI for your project

This guide walks you through setting up AI customizations for your project in Visual Studio Code. You start with basic coding standards and progressively add more targeted capabilities.

By the end, your project will have:

• Project-wide coding standards that apply to every chat request
• File-specific instructions for frontend code
• A reusable prompt file for a common task
• A custom agent with restricted tools
• A skill for a specialized capability

Prerequisites

• VS Code installed
• A GitHub Copilot plan (Free, Pro, Business, or Enterprise)
• The GitHub Copilot extension installed
• An open workspace or folder in VS Code

Step 1: Set project-wide coding standards

Start by generating an instructions file that captures your project's coding standards. These instructions are automatically included in every chat request.

1. Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)).

2. Type /init and press Enter.

   /init
   

3. VS Code analyzes your project structure and generates a .github/copilot-instructions.md file tailored to your codebase.

4. Review the generated file and customize it. For example, add a rule about your preferred import style:

   ## Imports
   - Use named imports instead of default imports.
   - Group imports: external libraries first, then internal modules, then relative paths.
   

5. Save the file.

Verify it works: Ask Copilot to generate some code (for example, "create a utility function for date formatting"). Check that the response follows your coding standards. Select the References section in the chat response to confirm that copilot-instructions.md was included.

Step 2: Add file-specific instructions

When different parts of your codebase follow different conventions, use instructions files with applyTo patterns to target specific file types.

1. Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)).

2. Type /create-instructions, followed by a description of the instructions you want to create, and press Enter.

   /create-instructions React-specific coding standards
   

3. Answer the clarifying questions about the instructions and review the generated instructions file.

Verify it works: Open a .tsx file and ask Copilot to "create a user profile card component". The response should follow your React-specific conventions. Check the References section to confirm the instructions file was applied.

Step 3: Create a reusable prompt file

Prompt files encode common tasks as slash commands you can invoke in chat. Create one for a task you perform regularly.

1. Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)).

2. Type /create-prompt, followed by a description of the prompt you want to create, and press Enter.

   /create-prompt Scaffold a new React component with tests
   

3. Answer the clarifying questions about the prompt and review the generated prompt file.

Verify it works: In the Chat view, type /<prompt name> data table with sorting and filtering and press Enter. The agent should scaffold the component and test file according to your conventions.

Step 4: Build a custom agent

Custom agents let the AI adopt specialized personas with specific tool access. Create a code reviewer agent that can only read code, not modify it.

1. Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)).

2. Type /create-agent, followed by a description of the agent you want to create, and press Enter.

   /create-agent A code reviewer that analyzes code for quality, security, and best practices without modifying files
   

3. Answer the clarifying questions about the agent and review the generated agent file.

Verify it works: Select the Reviewer agent from the agents dropdown in the Chat view, then ask "review the authentication module". The agent should analyze the code without making changes.

Step 5: Create a skill for a specialized capability

Skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Copilot loads when relevant to perform specialized tasks. Unlike instructions files that define coding standards, skills teach Copilot how to perform specific workflows.

1. Run the Chat: Open Customizations command from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) to open the Chat Customizations editor.

2. Select the Skills tab and then select New Skill (Workspace) from the dropdown.

3. Enter the name of the skill, such as update-readme, and press Enter.

4. Add the following content to the SKILL.md file:

   ---
   name: update-readme
   description: Update the project README to reflect recent code changes. Whenever code changes are made, this skill reviews the changes and updates the README with new features, usage instructions, and API references.
   ---
   # Update README
   
   When updating the README:
   1. Review recent code changes to identify new or modified features
   2. Update the relevant sections (installation, usage, API reference)
   3. Add entries for new commands, configuration options, or environment variables
   4. Remove documentation for deleted or deprecated features
   5. Keep the existing tone, structure, and formatting conventions
   

Verify it works: In chat, ask Copilot to add a new feature to your project (for example, "add a health check endpoint"). When it generates the code, it should also automatically update the README with the new endpoint's documentation. You can also invoke the skill directly by typing /update-readme in the Chat view.

What you built

Your project now has a layered AI customization setup:

your-project/
  .github/
    copilot-instructions.md          # Project-wide coding standards (Step 1)
    instructions/
      react.instructions.md          # React-specific conventions (Step 2)
    prompts/
      create-component.prompt.md     # Reusable component scaffolding (Step 3)
    agents/
      reviewer.agent.md              # Read-only code reviewer (Step 4)
    skills/
      update-readme/
        SKILL.md                     # README updater workflow (Step 5)

Next steps

• Add MCP servers to extend the agent with external tools and services
• Set up hooks to automate tasks at agent lifecycle points, such as running a formatter after every file edit
• Browse agent plugins to install pre-packaged customizations from community marketplaces
• Share customizations with your team by committing the .github/ directory to your repository
• See all your customizations in one place with the Chat Customizations editor