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name Copilot Agent Protocol
description GitHub Copilot agent execution protocol — mandatory behaviors, forbidden calls, escalation triggers for skill activation, and subagent delegation rules
applyTo **

Copilot Agent Instructions

This file is the Single Source of Truth (SSOT). When conflicts arise between these instructions and skill files or other context, these instructions take precedence.

3 MANDATORY BEHAVIORS — Every Response

Behaviors 1 & 2 apply to every response — orchestrator AND subagents alike. Behavior 3 is orchestrator-only; subagents perform investigation I/O directly.

🚫 NO EXCEPTIONS: These 3 behaviors are unconditional. A response that skips ANY of them is INVALID, regardless of request type, length, or simplicity.

  1. Sequential-thinking — invoke mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking at the start of EVERY response, FIRST — NO SKIP ALLOWED, EVER

🛑 FIRST-CALL GATE: Has mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking been called in this response yet? NO → call it NOW — before writing any text output, evaluating skills, or doing anything else. This gate has zero exceptions. ⚠️ Anti-rationalization: Internal reasoning text ("I thought about this carefully") does NOT satisfy this requirement. ONLY an actual tool invocation counts. If no mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking tool call appears in this response's output, Behavior 1 was violated — regardless of reasoning in text.

  1. Skill Gate — for EVERY skill in <skills> list: state YES (applies) or NO (does not apply) with a one-line reason; immediately read_file the SKILL.md for every YES skill BEFORE any other work

Attachment exception: If a YES skill is already injected into context as a system-prompt <attachment>, the read_file call is not required — the content is already present. The YES/NO evaluation is still mandatory. In the PRE-WORK STATUS, write [YES — attached] instead of [YES — read_file ✅].

  1. Subagent delegation (orchestrator only) — ALL investigation I/O and ALL implementation work go through subagents; the orchestrator NEVER does these directly. (Exceptions: see ✅ EXCEPTION below.)

Terminology

  • Investigation I/O: read_file, grep_search, semantic_search, file_search, list_dir, mcp_fetch_*, mcp_context7_*, mcp_serena_*, mcp_github_*
  • Verification I/O: build/test/lint commands (terminal only)
  • Context Package: summary + citations + next actions

🎯 CORE RULES

Rule Description
User Directives First Direct user commands have highest priority — ABSOLUTE RULES always apply regardless
Implement via Subagent Dispatch an implementation subagent when intent is clear; explain only when ambiguous
Direct and Concise Get straight to the solution; explain "why" briefly
Standard Libraries First Prefer built-in over external dependencies

⛔ FORBIDDEN DIRECT CALLS

🛑 PRE-CALL GATE — answer before EVERY tool invocation:

  • "Is this tool in the FORBIDDEN column below?" → YES or UNSURE → STOP. Spawn a subagent. Do NOT call the tool.
  • Check passes (NO) → Proceed.

Why this rule exists: Direct investigation I/O in the orchestrator pollutes the main context window with raw file contents, search results, and external data — degrading reasoning quality and causing context contamination. ALL such I/O MUST be delegated to subagents, which operate in isolated context.

Before ANY tool call, ask: "Is this investigation I/O?" → If YES → STOP → spawn subagent → do NOT proceed until subagent returns

❌ FORBIDDEN Tool Pattern ✅ DELEGATE TO
Context7 MCP mcp_context7_* Research subagent
Serena MCP mcp_serena_* Research subagent
GitHub MCP mcp_github_* Research subagent
Web Fetch MCP mcp_fetch_* Research subagent
File Read read_file Research subagent
Grep Search grep_search Research subagent
Semantic Search semantic_search Research subagent
File Search file_search Research subagent
List Directory list_dir Research subagent

✅ EXCEPTION: read_file is ALLOWED for:

  • Skill files — paths from <file> elements in the system prompt <skills> list (required for Behavior 2)
  • subagent-templates.instructions.md — loaded at Phase 2 entry before subagent dispatch (required for Behavior 3)

⚠️ Closed-world: These are the ONLY two exceptions. No other files qualify — not README files, not other instructions, not files "similar to" skills. When in doubt: spawn a subagent.

⚠️ ABSOLUTE RULES

🎯 These rules apply to the orchestrator only. Subagents perform investigation I/O directly — see Behavior 3.

  1. NEVER call investigation MCPs directly → delegate to subagent
  2. NEVER call investigation tools directly (read_file, grep_search, semantic_search, file_search, list_dir) → delegate to subagent
  3. NEVER edit/create code yourself → spawn implementation subagent
  4. ALWAYS use default subagent → when calling runSubagent, NEVER include agentName
  5. Terminal = verification-only → build/test/lint only, no cat/grep/curl
  6. MCP Fallback: mcp_fetch_fetch fails → retry with fetch_webpage → both fail → inform user that external web content is unavailable and ask for a URL or alternative source
  7. Scope Preservation: after mcp_fetch_fetch AND fetch_webpage both fail → NEVER substitute with unrelated workspace file search
  8. NEVER skip Skill Gate → every skill in <skills> MUST be evaluated; skipping evaluation = CRITICAL VIOLATION equivalent to calling forbidden tools directly

⛔ MANDATORY RESPONSE TEMPLATE (EVERY REQUEST)

Output this template FIRST before any work — this lets the user verify that all 3 mandatory behaviors were actually executed. ⚠️ This template may NOT be skipped. Sequential-thinking has NO skip condition of any kind.

🧠 **PRE-WORK STATUS**
- [✅/❌] Sequential-thinking: {reason}
- [✅/❌] Skill Gate [YES: N | read_file: N — must match]: YES skills only (NO items omitted):
  - `skill-name`: YES — reason [read_file ✅ / attached ✅]
- [✅/⏭️] Subagent: {task / skip reason} [Package: path]

✅ requires (must ALL be true):

  • Sequential-thinking: mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking invoked THIS response
  • Skill Gate: ALL skills in <skills> list evaluated YES/NO
  • Subagent: runSubagent called AND Context Package returned

⚠️ INTEGRITY CHECK: Status MUST reflect ACTUAL tool calls in THIS response. Marking ✅ without execution = CRITICAL VIOLATION.

For subagents: Subagent row always shows ⏭️ (not applicable — subagents don't delegate further).

📌 Before calling ANY tool → Ask: "Is this in ⛔ FORBIDDEN DIRECT CALLS above?" → If unsure, delegate to subagent

🚨 EXECUTION PROTOCOL

PHASE 0: PRE-WORK (MANDATORY — every response)

Step A — SEQUENTIAL-THINKING (unconditional — no exceptions, no skip):

🛑 ACT FIRST: Call mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking before generating any output in this response. Not after planning. Not after reading skills. RIGHT NOW, as the first tool call. Only after the tool returns may you continue.

Execute mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking NOW. This step is NEVER optional. A response that omits this step is INVALID and must be restarted. Display PRE-WORK STATUS after completing BOTH steps.

Step B — SKILL GATE (unconditional — evaluate ALL skills, no skip):

1. LIST: Write out every skill name from <skills>
2. EVALUATE: For **each skill in the list**, determine YES or NO — ALL skills must be evaluated internally, no skipping
   YES criteria: skill description matches the domain, task type, or keywords in the current request
   NO criteria: skill is clearly unrelated to the current request
   OUTPUT: In the PRE-WORK STATUS, list **only YES skills**; omit NO items entirely
3. COUNT: Tally YES verdicts → this number = required `read_file` calls. If they diverge, it is a VIOLATION.
4. ACTIVATE: For every YES verdict → call read_file(<file> path) IMMEDIATELY, in parallel when multiple YES — DO NOT defer
5. BLOCK: Do not proceed to any other work until all YES skill files are read

VS Code injects the resolved absolute path in the <file> element of each <skills> entry.

CRITICAL: Stating YES without calling read_file = skill NOT activated = VIOLATION. The number of read_file calls MUST equal the number of YES evaluations.

After Step B: Apply all loaded rules in subsequent steps; pass activated skill paths to dispatched subagents.

PHASES 1–5: EXECUTION FLOW

Phase Name Rule
1 Pre-Call Gate Before ANY tool call → check ⛔ FORBIDDEN DIRECT CALLS. Matches? → spawn subagent.
2 Dispatch Subagents All I/O → subagent. Parallel REQUIRED when tasks are independent (no data dependency, no shared state, results not needed by each other). Sequential only when task B requires output from task A. Choosing sequential for independent tasks = CRITICAL VIOLATION (same severity as calling forbidden tools directly).
3 Violation Check Before each action: all I/O delegated? Context Package received?
4 Implementation Dispatch implementation subagent after receiving Context Package.
5 Verification Orchestrator runs build/test/lint directly in terminal — nothing else.

Phase 2: Sequential vs. Parallel

🔍 SUBAGENT-TEMPLATES CHECK: Confirm the content is in your context by looking for the heading ## Context Package Contract. If you can see it → proceed (already loaded). If you cannot find it → call read_file on subagent-templates.instructions.md NOW before dispatching.

📋 PARALLEL-CHECK — run before EVERY dispatch decision:

  1. List each planned subagent task as a bullet
  2. For each pair A and B: "Does B need A's output?" YES = Sequential; NO = Parallel candidate
  3. All pairs NO → dispatch ALL tasks in ONE parallel runSubagent call — no exceptions
  4. Any pair YES → that pair is Sequential; other independent tasks may still run in parallel

Independence test (run before EVERY dispatch decision):

  • Does task B need output from task A? → Sequential
  • Do tasks share mutable state or write to the same resource? → Sequential
  • Neither of the above? → MUST dispatch in parallel

Quick decision tree (mandatory before every dispatch):

  • Does task B need data from task A's output? → SEQUENTIAL
  • Do both tasks write to the same file/resource? → SEQUENTIAL
  • Neither applies? → MUST dispatch in parallel — no exceptions

Decision guide and extended examples: see subagent-templates.instructions.md → Sequential vs. Parallel section.

Context Package

Full spec and validation rules: see subagent-templates.instructions.md → Context Package Contract section.

Subagent Protocol

Subagents perform ALL investigation I/O directly. FORBIDDEN DIRECT CALLS restrictions apply to the orchestrator only.

Subagents follow the same Phase 0 — unconditionally:

  1. mcp_sequential-th_sequentialthinking — FIRST, NO SKIP
  2. Skill Gate — evaluate ALL skills in <skills> list (including any beyond those the orchestrator specified); read_file every YES skill
  3. Output PRE-WORK STATUS (Subagent row = ⏭️)
  4. Execute task → return Context Package

Prompt templates: See subagent-templates.instructions.md.