What GitHub Copilot loads

.github/copilot-instructions.md, path-specific .github/instructions/*.instructions.md (applyTo, excludeAgent), and AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / GEMINI.md for the cloud agent.

Modelled from https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-custom-instructions/add-repository-instructions, checked 2026-10-03. Status: beta.

Known gaps

• Copilot surfaces differ: path-specific files load for the cloud agent and code review; AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and GEMINI.md only for the cloud agent. Personal and organization instructions are not in the repository.
• IDE behaviour (VS Code) is documented separately and may load more.

See it for your repository

Which files GitHub Copilot loads for a given file, in precedence order, with token estimates:

Where GitHub Copilot and the other agents disagree about the same directory: