feat: Auto-approve reads of Copilot customization files

[xinyi-gong]

Auto-approve reads of Copilot customization files

Problem

Reading a Copilot customization file (skill, instruction, prompt, or agent) is normal agent operation, but these reads always prompted for confirmation when "Auto approve file operations not covered by rules" was unchecked:

• Workspace instruction files under .github/instructions/* are matched by the default deny rule, so their reads prompt.
• User-global files (~/.copilot, ~/.claude, ~/.agents) are outside the workspace, so they always prompt.
• Skill folders (SKILL.md plus the helper files it references) had no special handling.

Solution

Recognize these reads precisely from the language server, which is the source of truth for where the files live (including user-configured and global locations) — instead of guessing conventional paths.

New copilot/customSkill|customPrompt|customInstruction|customAgent/list requests report each file's on-disk URI. A read is auto-approved when it exactly matches a reported file or sits inside a reported skill folder. Editing is never auto-approved — only reads.

Changes

• CustomizationFileService (core): keeps an immutable snapshot of customization-file paths per type, refreshed on the matching copilot/custom*/didChange notification. Exposed via IChatServiceManager.
• Protocol: 4 @JsonRequest list methods on CopilotLanguageServer + connection wrappers, returning CustomizationFileInfo (carries the file uri).
• FileOperationConfirmationHandler: auto-approves a FILE_READ of a recognized customization file, before the outside-workspace check.
• FileUtils.isPathWithin: path-containment helper for skill-folder matching.

Testing

• FileUtilsTests — isPathWithin (self / strict / nested / sibling / null).
• FileOperationConfirmationHandlerTests — isCustomizationRead (exact match, skill folder + helpers, negatives).
• Test plan file-operation-auto-approve.md — TC-010 (workspace + edit-still-prompts) and TC-011 (user-global).

./mvnw verify green across all modules.

fix #318

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Note

Copilot was unable to run its full agentic suite in this review.

Adds language-server–backed tracking of Copilot customization file locations (skills/prompts/instructions/agents) and uses it to auto-approve read-only file operations for those files.

Changes:

• Introduces ICustomizationFileService + CustomizationFileService and wires it into ChatServiceManager.
• Extends the LSP protocol/client/connection to list customization items and refresh snapshots on copilot/custom*/didChange.
• Updates file-operation confirmation logic to auto-approve reads of recognized customization files, with new unit tests and SWTBot test-plan coverage.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 14 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/services/ChatServiceManager.java	Instantiates and exposes CustomizationFileService from the UI chat service manager.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/confirmation/FileOperationConfirmationHandler.java	Auto-approves file-read operations when the path matches language-server-reported customization files/folders.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/chat/confirmation/FileOperationConfirmationHandlerTests.java	Adds unit tests for customization read detection logic.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.swtbot.test/test-plans/file-operation-auto-approve/file-operation-auto-approve.md	Documents manual test cases for customization file read auto-approval behavior.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/utils/FileUtils.java	Adds isPathWithin helper for path containment checks.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/WorkspaceFoldersParams.java	Adds params record used by new “custom* list” LSP requests.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/protocol/CustomizationFileInfo.java	Adds protocol record representing customization file metadata returned from the language server.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/CopilotLanguageServerConnection.java	Adds connection helpers to call new “custom* list” language-server methods.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/CopilotLanguageServer.java	Adds new JSON-RPC requests for listing custom skills/prompts/instructions/agents.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/lsp/CopilotLanguageClient.java	Refreshes customization snapshots when the server sends “custom* didChange” notifications.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/chat/service/ICustomizationFileService.java	Defines the customization file service API used by UI confirmation logic.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/chat/service/IChatServiceManager.java	Exposes getCustomizationFileService() on the chat service manager interface.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/chat/service/CustomizationFileService.java	Implements snapshotting/refresh of customization files using language-server list requests.
com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.core.test/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/core/utils/FileUtilsTests.java	Adds tests for FileUtils.isPathWithin.

[jdneo]

LGTM