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Nested agents load ALL copilot-instructions.md, not just the ones at the nested level #2735

Description

@Rykarix

Describe the bug

This feature was added: #1655

However, whilst nested agents are now dispalyed, they read the copilot-instructions.md at ALL levels.

This is not expected behavior because it should be assumed that nested folders are sub-projects / workspaces in their own right

Solutions:

  • Default to only read the copilot-instructions.md at the same level in a nested hierarchy
  • Add a boolean setting to turn this behavior on / off as needed, defaulted to off

Affected version

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

create:

  • .github/copilot-instructions.md
  • nested_folder/.github/agents/test-agent.md
  • nested_folder/.github/copilot-instructions.md

ask the test-agent.md to link the absolute path to all of the instructions in its context window & memory and it will link both:

Image

Expected behavior

it should be assumed that nested folders are sub-projects / workspaces in their own right. therefore it shouldn't be loading in content that's outside the view and/or control of the hierarchy

Additional context

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    area:agentsSub-agents, fleet, autopilot, plan mode, background agents, and custom agentsarea:context-memoryContext window, memory, compaction, checkpoints, and instruction loading

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