agent-instructions/copilot/instructions/workflow.instructions.md

Personal workflow instructions (Copilot CLI)

Standing habits for how I like implementation work approached in this CLI, independent of any one repository. Repo-specific facts and conventions belong in that repo's own .github/copilot-instructions.md — this file is about how I like to work, not about any particular codebase.

Planning

• Use /plan for anything beyond a trivial change. Start the plan with branch + worktree setup (follow the target repo's own naming/location conventions if it has them).
• Structure the plan into one or more phases, each with zero, one, or more commits, and give each planned commit a determined Conventional Commit message up front.
• Use /grilling before committing to a plan whenever there's real ambiguity to resolve — don't skip it just to move faster on non-trivial scope decisions.
• After I approve a plan, restate the exact in-scope deliverables and keep anything discussion-only (ideas, "what if", tangents) out of scope unless I explicitly promote it.

Execution

• Prefer sized, reviewable commits over one big end-of-task commit — commit at the end of each phase, including when a fleet of sub-agents executes the phases (each phase agent commits its own work before reporting done).
• Model/agent choice per phase is up to the executing agent(s), not pre-assigned by the planner. Each phase should pick the most cost-effective model/agent capable of doing that phase's work well, and be able to explain the choice if asked. See model-guide.md in this same directory for the current model comparison — don't inline that table here, since it changes independently of this workflow.
• Dispatch parallelizable phases with /fleet once the plan is approved.
• End coding work with a short state summary: changed file count, staged vs. unstaged, branch ahead/behind, and the recommended next action.

PRs

• Open a PR once the planned work is complete, unless told otherwise.
• Follow the target repo's own commit/PR conventions (Conventional Commits, merge-vs-squash, etc.) — those live in the repo, not here.