One search for your own team's files and the public ecosystem. See how real projects write their agent instructions, and bring the good ideas home.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/.github/skills/ux-css-layout/SKILL.md
VS Code CSS conventions, file organization, class naming, standard sizes, SplitView/Grid layout, scrollable content, responsive layout, and text overflow/ellipsis patterns. Use when writing CSS, building layouts, or fixing text truncation issues.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/.github/skills/ux-theming/SKILL.md
VS Code theming, color tokens, widget styles, focus indicators, and high-contrast theme support. Use when registering colors, styling widgets with theme tokens, or ensuring HC/focus compliance.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/.github/skills/validate-ui-scenario/SKILL.md
Use when reproducing a UI bug or verifying a fix by driving a real VS Code window end to end and capturing evidence. Writes a scenario file, runs it against a dev build or installed Insiders, and produces a captioned video, per-step screenshots, a Playwright trace, and an HTML report to attach to an issue or pull request.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/.github/skills/vscode-dev-workbench/SKILL.md
Use when the user wants to run the vscode.dev server locally and exercise the VS Code workbench or Agents window in the integrated browser against the local `microsoft/vscode` sources. Covers starting the dev server, the `vscode-quality=dev` URL, browser-driven interaction patterns, and optionally wiring up a local mock agent host for the Agents window.
MicrosoftAGENTS.mdmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/platform/agentHost/AGENTS.md
Node runtime service construction is documented separately in node/serviceBootstrapping.md. Host startup timings, process-lifetime correlation, and session workload counts are documented in PERFORMANCE.md. Status: COMPLETE (2026-07-01) All waves A–D and gates G-B1, G-C1, G-C2, G-D1 are done. Codex, Claude, and Copilot all use the unified orchestrator path. Codex advertises multipleChats: { fork: true, sideChat: true }. Model-backed peer, fork, and side-chat parity scenarios run in deterministic replay. The operational chat surface (send/abort/model/agent/history) is fully chat-addressed and uniform across harnesses. Session ownership…
MicrosoftAGENTS.mdmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/platform/agentHost/common/state/AGENTS.md
This directory contains the VS Code-facing wrappers around the Agent Host Protocol (AHP) state model. Read this before modifying protocol types. The generated protocol includes the Changesets model: Optional protocol fields are usually backwards-compatible. Add the field in the source protocol repo, sync protocol/**, and add wrapper exports only when VS Code code needs them. Adding a new server-produced action type is backwards-compatible when old clients can ignore it safely. Old clients at the same protocol version ignore unknown action…
MicrosoftAGENTS.mdmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/platform/agentHost/node/copilot/prompts/AGENTS.md
This directory customizes the system prompt for Copilot CLI agent host (ahp+cli) sessions. Read this before changing how the system message is built or adding per-model / per-tool guidance. It mirrors the Copilot extension's extensions/copilot/.../prompts/node/agent/ (agentPrompts), but the agent host runs in its own process and cannot use prompt-tsx, so contributors return plain data the SDK accepts directly. Unless the matching chat.agentHost.copilot.modelCapabilityOverrides entry provides a YAML promptOverrideString or promptOverrideFile containing systemPrompt, resolveSystemMessageConfig(model, context) layers, in order: The per-model prompt override…
MicrosoftAGENTS.mdmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/platform/agentHost/test/node/AGENTS.md
For tests in this area that touch the SessionDatabase, they MUST use an in-memory database, not a real database file on disk. Use SessionDatabase.open(':memory:') and see the examples from existing tests.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/act-on-feedback/SKILL.md
Act on user feedback attached to the current session. Use when the user submits feedback on the session's changes via the Submit Feedback button.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/code-review/SKILL.md
Perform a code review of the current session's changes. Use when the user requests a code review via the Run Code Review button in the Changes toolbar.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/commit/SKILL.md
Commit staged or unstaged changes with an AI-generated commit message that matches the repository's existing commit style. Use when the user asks to 'commit', 'commit changes', 'create a commit', 'save my work', or 'check in code'.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/create-draft-pr/SKILL.md
Create a draft pull request for the current session. Use when the user wants to open a draft PR with the session's changes.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/create-pr/SKILL.md
Create a pull request for the current session. Use when the user wants to open a PR with the session's changes.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/fix-ci/SKILL.md
Fix the failed CI checks for the current session. Use when the user requests a CI fix via the Fix Checks button in the Changes toolbar.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/generate-run-commands/SKILL.md
Generate or modify run commands for the current session. Use when the user wants to set up or update run commands that appear in the session's Run button.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/merge/SKILL.md
Merge changes from the topic branch to the merge base branch. Use when the user wants to merge their session's work back to the base branch.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/sync/SKILL.md
Sync the current session branch with its upstream branch, or publish the current session branch to a remote. Use when the user asks to sync a branch, pull latest changes, rebase onto upstream, push current branch, publish branch, or set upstream.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/sync-upstream/SKILL.md
Update a stale session branch by rebasing onto the latest origin. Use when the upstream has moved significantly and the session needs to catch up, resolving conflicts by preserving upstream changes and adapting session work to fit.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/troubleshoot/SKILL.md
Investigate unexpected behavior in the current Copilot agent session by analyzing its event log. Use when the user asks why something happened, why a request was slow, why a tool was or was not used, or why instructions/skills/agents did not load.
MicrosoftSkillmicrosoft/vscode/src/vs/sessions/skills/update-pr/SKILL.md
Update the pull request for the current session. Use when the user wants to push new changes to an existing PR.
Plain text files in a repository that tell a coding agent how the project works: commands to run, conventions to follow and things to avoid. CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, cursor rules and skills are the common kinds.
CLAUDE.md is read by Claude Code. AGENTS.md is an open format that Codex, Cursor and other agents read. Many projects keep one and point the other at it.
A folder with a SKILL.md that describes one capability, such as filling PDFs or reviewing code. The agent loads it only when the task calls for it.
Your agents already can, over MCP, limited to the files you're allowed to read. Searching them from this page is coming.
