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Published 4 weeks ago • verified publisher icon agentsmd

Unclear if Github Copilot supports AGENTS.md

Open sgryphon opened this issue 4 months ago • 9 comments

Up until 2025-08-08, the Github Copilot documentation stated that it would fall back to AGENTS.md (and other files).

However since then the documentation has been updated and the reference removed (line 119): https://github.com/github/docs/commit/16236c34e0a292dbb6767c9d35c8caab853f856e

It is not clear if Github Copilot is supposed to support it, or it has changed, or the original documentation was wrong.

I have raised an issue in their repository, and will update based on the outcome. https://github.com/github/docs/issues/39730

The response so far is that the documentation was removed by mistake, however the development discussion on standardising the rules format seems to indicate it was waiting on this site (agents.md) to proceed, https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/249387#issuecomment-3204092685

It would be good to determine if Github Copilot is on board or not.

sgryphon avatar Aug 20 '25 11:08 sgryphon

It seems that VSC will be adding support for it. It's on their Aug 2025 milestone. Aug is almost over though so hopefully they continue work. Unsure how that relates to GH Copilot itself though or if VS will add support for it.

bgoewert avatar Aug 25 '25 19:08 bgoewert

@bgoewert you mentioned support, but linked the milestone. I was not able to find anything related to agents.md?

mzatt avatar Aug 26 '25 14:08 mzatt

Ah,sorry. Doesn't have Agents.md in title. #249387 Standardized Rules Format

bgoewert avatar Aug 27 '25 01:08 bgoewert

GitHub PM here 👋 AGENTS.md is supported for GitHub Copilot coding agent, GitHub's background cloud-based agent (like OpenAI Codex), but not for other Copilot experiences (e.g. Copilot Chat or agent mode in VS Code).

Today, we'll be updating the docs today to reflect that, and will also be announcing richer support for AGENTS.md including deeply-nested files.

I've created a PR to reflect this on https://agents.md.

timrogers avatar Aug 28 '25 13:08 timrogers

and will also be announcing richer support for AGENTS.md including deeply-nested files.

@timrogers does this mean richer support for GH coding agents? Or support for agent mode/chat in vs code?

mzatt avatar Aug 28 '25 13:08 mzatt

PM for VS Code here, assigned the https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/249387 issue. August iteration ships in 2 weeks, by which we should have support, enabled by default.

digitarald avatar Aug 28 '25 21:08 digitarald

https://github.blog/changelog/2025-08-28-copilot-coding-agent-now-supports-agents-md-custom-instructions/

webknjaz avatar Aug 28 '25 21:08 webknjaz

We can probably close this once the PR is merged.

sgryphon avatar Aug 28 '25 22:08 sgryphon

VS Code landed support for agent mode as well: https://github.com/openai/agents.md/pull/46

digitarald avatar Sep 08 '25 18:09 digitarald