'No copilot-instructions.md found' notice is misleading when global config exists
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100
Research direction
Start by locating the Copilot CLI code that emits the “No copilot-instructions.md found” notice and review how it detects the global ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md file outside a repository. Update the notice to distinguish a missing repository-level file, then verify the behavior using the reproduction steps in the issue.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Describe the bug
When opening the Copilot CLI outside of a git repository, the notice No copilot-instructions.md found. Run /init to generate. is misleading. it implies no instructions file was found at all, even when a global ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md exists and is being used.
Affected version
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.49.
Steps to reproduce the behavior
- Create a global instructions file at
~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md - Open Copilot CLI from a directory that is not a git repository
- Observe the notice:
No copilot-instructions.md found. Run /init to generate.
Expected behavior
- Create a global instructions file at
~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md - Open Copilot CLI from a directory that is not a git repository
- Observe the notice:
No repository-level copilot-instructions.md found. Run /init to generate.
Additional context
No response
- Dominant language
- Shell
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- 14h 16m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 6
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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