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Add persistent per-user exclusion for duplicate Copilot instruction files #4603

Description

@nitinja

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

Add persistent per-user exclusion for duplicate Copilot instruction files

Proposed solution

Summary:

GitHub Copilot CLI automatically loads supported instruction files such as  CLAUDE.md  and  AGENTS.md . When both contain duplicate or overlapping instructions, Copilot may load the same guidance twice.

The  /instructions  command can disable one file, but the change applies only to the current Copilot CLI session. There is currently no documented persistent, user-specific ignore list for excluding one repository instruction file without modifying the shared repository.

This would be useful for teams sharing repositories across multiple people and agents, including Copilot, CloudA, and Codex. A per-user configuration option to permanently exclude selected instruction files—without affecting other users or agents—would prevent duplicate instruction loading while preserving the repository structure.

Example prompts or workflows

My Claude.md file just mentions/loads Agents.md. All the instruction gets loaded twice and bloat the context..

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    area:configurationConfig files, instruction files, settings, and environment variablesarea:context-memoryContext window, memory, compaction, checkpoints, and instruction loading

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