Note
This feature is currently in public preview and is subject to change.
Support: Organization custom instructions are currently only supported for Copilot Chat on GitHub.com and Copilot code review on GitHub.com.
For an overview of the methods you can use to customize GitHub Copilot Chat responses, see About customizing GitHub Copilot Chat responses.
About organization custom instructions for Copilot
Organization owners can add instructions for Copilot, to tailor responses to the needs and preferences of your organization. For example, you can choose to always have Copilot Chat respond in your company's language of choice or with a particular style.
Custom instructions defined in an organization's Copilot settings are used for all members of the organization, irrespective of whether they receive their Copilot subscription from that organization.
Some examples of instructions you could add are:
Always respond in Spanish.Do not generate code blocks in responses.For questions related to security, use the Security Docs Knowledge Base.
Note
- Multiple types of custom instructions can apply to a Copilot Chat conversation. Personal instructions take the highest priority, followed by repository instructions, with organization instructions prioritized last. However, all sets of relevant instructions are still combined and provided to Copilot Chat.
- For Copilot code review, the order of precedence is: instructions in any applicable
.github/instructions/NAME.instructions.mdfile, then the instructions in the.github/copilot-instructions.mdfile, then the organization-level custom instructions. - Whenever possible, you should avoid providing conflicting sets of instructions. If you are concerned about response quality, you can also choose to temporarily disable repository instructions. See Adding repository custom instructions for GitHub Copilot.
Adding organization custom instructions
You can add organization custom instructions via your organization settings.
-
In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Your organizations.
-
Next to the organization, click Settings.
-
In the left sidebar, click Copilot then click Custom instructions.
-
Under "Preferences and instructions", add natural language instructions to the text box.
You can write your instructions in any format you prefer. For example, you can write them as a single block of text, each on a new line, or separated by blank lines.
-
Click Save changes. Your instructions are now active, and will stay active until you change or remove them.
To see your instructions in action, go to https://github.com/copilot and start a conversation.