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Improve repository agent guidance for recurring workflow failures

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
78/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
csharp
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start with .github/copilot-instructions.md and review the existing repository guidance alongside restore.cmd and restore.sh. Add guidance covering configured plugin-source skill discovery, serialized overlapping .NET build/test graphs and shared-artifact errors, and the platform-specific SDK bootstrap and reactivation sequence. Done means all three recovery paths are documented without changing build infrastructure or SDK configuration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

design-proposal

Summary

Document three recurring agent workflow requirements in the repository guidance: locating explicitly requested skills from configured plugin sources, serializing overlapping .NET build/test graphs that share the artifacts tree, and bootstrapping the repository SDK when activation reports it missing.

Motivation and goals

Recent work on #68943 and PR #69233 exposed repeatable failure modes that are not currently stated clearly enough in repository guidance:

  • An explicitly required skill was initially treated as unavailable even though it existed in the configured javiercn/skills plugin source. This led to an ad hoc substitute workflow and a later redo using the required skill.
  • Concurrent focused Output Caching and Response Caching test runs shared the checkout's artifacts tree and failed with CS2012/file-lock errors. Serial execution passed the same tests, showing the failures came from execution topology rather than the changes under test.
  • After repository environment activation reported that the expected SDK was missing, repository bootstrap through restore.cmd, followed by reactivation, was required before validation could proceed.

The goal is to make these recovery paths explicit so future agents avoid incorrect substitutions, false build diagnoses, and repeated failed SDK invocations.

In scope

  • Add repository-wide guidance that when a user explicitly requires a named skill and it is not loaded, agents should search configured project and user plugin sources before substituting another workflow.
  • Add repository-wide guidance not to run overlapping dotnet build or dotnet test graphs concurrently in the same checkout unless outputs are isolated or a verified no-build path is used.
  • Identify CS2012, access-denied, and file-in-use errors during concurrent builds as likely shared-artifact topology failures before diagnosing source changes.
  • Document the repository SDK bootstrap sequence: activate the environment; if the SDK is reported missing, run the platform restore script from the repository root; wait for completion; reactivate; retry.

Out of scope

  • Changing build infrastructure or the layout of the shared artifacts tree.
  • Installing or changing any SDK, package, or NuGet version in repository configuration.
  • Adding product-specific cache-key serialization guidance; that can be considered separately if future caching work shows a broader need.
  • Defining general runtime behavior for skill discovery outside this repository's agent guidance.

Risks / unknowns

  • Skill discovery guidance should not imply that arbitrary remote sources may be installed or trusted automatically; it should be limited to already configured project/user plugin sources.
  • Build concurrency guidance should allow verified isolated-output or no-build scenarios rather than prohibiting all parallel test execution.
  • SDK bootstrap wording must remain platform-correct (restore.cmd on Windows and ./restore.sh on Linux/macOS) and should not encourage repeated restoration when the failure has another cause.

Examples

Possible additions to .github/copilot-instructions.md:

  • When an explicitly required named skill is unavailable, search configured project and user plugin sources and load it before proceeding; do not silently replace it with an ad hoc workflow.
  • Do not run overlapping .NET build/test project graphs concurrently in one checkout when they share the repository artifacts tree. Treat CS2012 and file-lock failures as execution-topology problems first.
  • If environment activation reports that the repository SDK is missing, run the platform restore script from the repository root, reactivate the environment, and retry the original command.
Dominant language
C#
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
2d
Merged PRs (30d)
249

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