Copilot global instructions in VSCode

[gadfly3173]

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In the Copilot JetBrains plugin, you can easily configure global Copilot instructions, which are saved in ~/.config/github-copilot/global-copilot-instructions.md. However, in the VS Code Copilot plugin, even if you add the above file path to the chat.instructionsFilesLocations setting, Copilot still fails to recognize my global instructions. What is the correct way to configure user-level global instructions in the VS Code Copilot plugin?

[Kikaayy]

The JetBrain global instructions file is not supported by vs code even if the path is added under chat.instructionsFilesLocations
However there is a fairly easy workaround; instead of using the default ~/.config/github-copilot folder you can store global instructions in your VS Code user profile

Tutorial i found:

• Open the Copilot Chat view in VS Code
• Run “Chat: New Instructions File” from the command palette
• When it asks, pick User instructions(not Workspace)
• VS Code will create a .instructions.md file inside your user profile
• Add whatever global instructions you want in that file

These instructions will be automatically applied to every workspace once you save it

[gadfly3173]

This really works, thank you so much! It's quite puzzling why GitHub Copilot separates user-level global instructions into two distinct configuration paths, especially when neither path includes IDE-specific information. 😓

[AoEiuV020]

Is there a way for the entire account or all projects on a device to use the same global instructions, since different profiles cannot share them?

[scottnice]

@Kikaayy I have tried this in wsl and it always creates the user profile in my windows users APPDATA folder. Is there a way to have this file live on the wsl side? Also agents tend to ignore this file on the windows side because it's on the windows filesystem and not wsl.