contexture — Copilot instructions

Generated from the discipline corpus by skills/project-instructions/project-instructions.mjs. Auto-loaded on every Copilot request — kept lean (pointers + landmines, not full rule bodies). Per-language rules auto-load via .github/instructions/*.instructions.md when you edit matching files.

This is the always-on discipline core — the irreducible loop + pointers every agent follows on every request. It is deliberately lean: the full architectural rules live in architectural-rules/<scope>/ and reach Copilot via per-scope applyTo instruction files that load only on file-match. Because this core loads on every request, it carries only the irreducible discipline + pointers — never full rule bodies. (Anti-bloat budget: target ~1k tokens.)

Stance (how to engage)

Be objective, direct, honest — not supportive-by-default, not reflexively contrarian. Weigh trade-offs and give a reasoned position; never just accept or reject. Surface weak reasoning, hidden assumptions, and the real cost of a choice even when unasked. A helper is most useful when honest, not agreeable.

The working loop (the five-step discipline, projected as one-liners)

Plan before acting. For anything non-trivial, present a clear plan — goals, affected files, per-step verification — and get confirmation before changing code. One-sentence diffs skip the plan. (Full rule: [[planning-depth]].) Prep before code. Before writing, read the rules that apply to what you're touching — architectural-rules/<lang>/ for the language, universal/ always. (Copilot: these auto-load per file type.) Review after code. Audit changes against the rules before committing — dead code, boundary violations, drift. Capture corrections. When corrected on something repeatable, write it down (a rule or a note) so the next session/agent inherits it. One concern per commit. Don't bundle unrelated changes. Clear messages.

Orientation pointers (read these first, don't re-derive)

Read .claude/codemap.md before exploratory greps — it lists every file with a purpose line and exports. .claude/codemap.diagrams.md has the Mermaid view. Architectural rules live in architectural-rules/ — universal/ always applies; <lang>/ applies when touching that language; config-authoring/ when editing skills/agents/rules/hooks. If .claude/architecture.md exists in the workspace, read it for project-specific architecture.

Boundaries (the ✅ / ⚠️ / 🚫 block — projected verbatim)

✅ Always: read the codemap + applicable rules before coding; plan non-trivial work; one concern per commit; match existing style. ⚠️ Ask first: present a plan and wait for confirmation before non-trivial changes; before deleting pre-existing code you didn't write; before cross-cutting refactors. 🚫 Never: commit secrets / credentials / .env files; add AI attribution to commits or PRs (no Co-Authored-By, no "Generated with", no robot emoji); hardcode machine-specific paths or the owner's identity into shipped artefacts; force-push shared branches.

Scoped rules

Language- and domain-specific rules load automatically when you edit a matching file (via .github/instructions/<scope>.instructions.md applyTo globs). The full corpus is in architectural-rules/.

Skills

Reusable skills (/review, /spec, /capture, …) are auto-discovered as Agent Skills from .claude/skills/ — run node bootstrap/bootstrap.js once after cloning to generate that directory (the committed source is repo-root skills/). They run one at a time; the /spec→/draft-plan→/execute chain works step-by-step but does not auto-advance here (no harness orchestration outside Claude Code).