github / github/copilot-cli

Instruction file named `skill-instructions.instructions.md` is silently ignored

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area:configuration area:plugins
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

### Bug

`.github/instructions/skill-instructions.instructions.md` is silently dropped — never appears in the model's system prompt, no warning, no log. Rename to literally anything else (e.g. `skill-table.instructions.md`) with identical content and frontmatter → loads correctly.

Likely collides with the `SKILLS_INSTRUCTIONS` feature flag visible in `~/.copilot/logs/`. If that filename is reserved internally, at minimum emit a warning instead of silently swallowing user files.

### Why I care

I only needed this file in the first place because the CLI truncates the `` list (see #2314, #1130, #2416) — I have 45 skills, only ~31 show up, and the budget is a hardcoded tiny character cap. Meanwhile MCP tool schemas dump 10–100× more tokens into the same system prompt with no cap at all. It's a completely arbitrary penalty on skills.

So the workflow people are forced into — "auto-generate a skill registry file because the CLI won't load my skills properly" — is exactly the workflow that this silent filename filter breaks.

### Fix (any of)

1. Don't reserve user-space filenames; rename the internal feature.
2. Warn visibly when a matching file is found and skipped.
3. Document the reserved names.

### Affected version

1.0.30

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing with `.github/instructions/skill-instructions.instructions.md`, then compare it with the same content under `skill-table.instructions.md`; inspect `~/.copilot/logs/` for evidence of the `SKILLS_INSTRUCTIONS` collision. Done means the reserved-name behavior is removed or a visible warning is emitted when the file is skipped, with the renamed and original files behaving as documented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
58/100

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