Custom Instructions: How I Really Made Copilot Listen! | Ep 2 of 8

Reynald Adolphe explains what GitHub Copilot Custom Instructions are in VS Code, and demonstrates how to use them to consistently enforce coding standards, conventions, and preferences.

Full summary based on description

What “Custom Instructions” are

• Custom Instructions are reusable guidance you provide to Copilot so it follows your preferred:
  • coding standards
  • naming and formatting conventions
  • best practices (for example, SOLID)
  • accessibility standards

Demo: making Copilot follow your rules

• Reynald demonstrates how Custom Instructions influence Copilot’s output so you don’t have to restate the same expectations in every prompt.

Creating new Custom Instructions

• The video walks through creating new Custom Instructions in VS Code.
• The goal is to build reusable “rulebooks” that can be applied repeatedly.

Why this saves time

• By centralizing expectations in Custom Instructions, you reduce repetitive prompting and get more consistent code suggestions aligned with your team or project standards.

Links and references

• Custom Instructions: https://aka.ms/custom-instructions
• AwesomeGC: https://aka.ms/AwesomeGC
• Series playlist: https://aka.ms/vsc-learn

Video chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Custom Instructions
• 00:15 What are Custom Instructions
• 00:40 Demo
• 02:25 Creating new Custom Instructions
• 05:22 How Custom Instructions saves time
• 05:48 Learn more
• 06:00 In Summary