Add copilot instruction file to repo

[vogella]

I suggest we add a copilot instruction file to our repos startting with this one.

This way contributors and committers which use copilot agents on for GH pull request would guide the AI boot in the same direction and Github copilot could work more effiently. They already can do this but without a common guideline.

For details see here: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-custom-instructions/add-repository-instructions

cc @HeikoKlare @jdneo @iloveeclipse

[iloveeclipse]

What exactly do you want to provide in the instructions file?

[vogella]

What exactly do you want to provide in the instructions file?

See https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-custom-instructions/add-repository-instructions, the typical way of creating it is to ask Copilot to do a analysis of the repository and create this file so that future Copilot runs have easy access to necessary information.

[iloveeclipse]

So have you asked and can you propose whatever makes sense?

[vogella]

So have you asked and can you propose whatever makes sense?

I can do this and send a PR do have the detailed discussion once enough people had time to think about this proposal in general.

Lets see, if someone, especially projects leads or PMCs, objects against this idea.

[fedejeanne]

IIUC this would enable us (Committers only?) to use these 3 features:

To not only chat with a smarter Copilot but also to ask it to do reviews or to create PRs, correct?

[vogella]

@fedejeanne You can do this already but an instruction file would help Copilot to perform its work more efficient and better, as it would receive more context in case a task is assigned to it.

[fedejeanne]

It seems I do not qualify for a Pro plan (see here) so I can't ask for PRs or reviews.

Nevertheless I see no downside in adding instructions to the repo so that the chat agent is smarter. I'd say we give it a try

+1

[vogella]

#3340

[vogella]

It seems I do not qualify for a Pro plan (see here) so I can't ask for PRs or reviews.

Nevertheless I see no downside in adding instructions to the repo so that the chat agent is smarter. I'd say we give it a try

+1

I started paying for this to gain the options for projects outside Eclipse and I must say, I'm very much impressed. I will try to use it also for Eclipse if I find the time.

If you want to try something free, give Gemini reviews for PR a test. For Flutter code and documentation improvements it is very good, maybe also for Eclipse / Java code (did not yet use it for that). https://developers.google.com/gemini-code-assist/docs/review-github-code?hl=de

[laeubi]

I asked copilote to review the PR from @vogella ... let me know if something else is needed.

[fedejeanne]

Thank you for the pointers @vogella , I'll make sure to give them a try.

In the meantime I was chatting with the Copilot Support (which is Copilot itself 🤯 ) and I learned that:

• Maintainers of popular open source projects should qualify for free access to Copilot Pro
• There is no manual appeal to do so, only a monthly automatic review process that finds new candidates and offers access
• Setting my membership (to eclipse-platform) to be private might make me not qualify so I set it to public

... let's see if that works and I can ask for reviews as @laeubi did :-)

[laeubi]

Just is someone is interested I testes this a little bit with Tycho here

• https://github.com/eclipse-tycho/tycho/pulls/@copilot

I just didn't wanted to bug everyone, but if you have something you want to try out here for platform let me know, I just choose the "FREE" plan with 50 request / month: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans

[laeubi]

By the way here is the request to setup the instructions automatically on Tycho:

• ✨ Set up Copilot instructions eclipse-tycho/tycho#5417

this was done by clicking on this link with the tips here:

So just in case this is planned for other repos as well, it seems you only need to create a similar issue and assign it to copilote.