Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

• Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal.
• Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing.
• Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain.
• Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path.
• When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site.
• Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code.
• Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks.
• Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis.
• Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly.
• Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

Skill: sync-to-copilot

Sync Claude Code knowledge to GitHub Copilot instructions. Two-tier output: project-specific + common protocol.

Quick Summary

Purpose: Keep Copilot instructions in sync with Claude Code workflows, dev rules, and project-reference docs.

Architecture (Two-Tier):

1. .github/copilot-instructions.md

   — Project-specific (always loaded by Copilot)
   • TL;DR golden rules, decision table
   • Project-reference docs index with READ prompts
   • Key file locations, dev commands

2. .github/instructions/common-protocol.instructions.md

   — Generic protocols (applyTo:

   **/*

   )
   • Prompt protocol, before-editing rules
   • Workflow catalog (from workflows.json)
   • Workflow execution protocol
   • Development rules (from development-rules.md)

3. .github/instructions/{group}.instructions.md

   — Per-group (applyTo: file patterns)
   • Enhanced summaries per doc with READ prompts
   • Groups: backend, frontend, styling, testing, project

What gets synced:

• Workflow catalog (from workflows.json) — SCRIPT-GENERATED
• Dev rules (from development-rules.md) — SCRIPT-GENERATED
• Project-reference summaries (from copilot-registry.json) — SCRIPT-GENERATED
• Enriched section headings and key patterns — AI-GENERATED (this skill)

Usage:

/sync-to-copilot

Script:

.claude/scripts/sync-copilot-workflows.cjs

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

When to Use This Skill

Trigger this skill when:

• Workflows added/modified — After editing

  .claude/workflows.json

• Development rules changed — After editing

  .claude/docs/development-rules.md

• Project-reference docs updated — After modifying files in

  docs/project-reference/

• Registry entries changed — After editing

  docs/copilot-registry.json

• Regular maintenance — Quarterly sync to ensure Copilot parity
• Copilot setup — First-time Copilot instructions creation

Workflow

Phase 1: Script Generation (Automated)

node .claude/scripts/sync-copilot-workflows.cjs

This generates:

• .github/copilot-instructions.md

  — project-specific with registry summaries

• .github/instructions/common-protocol.instructions.md

  — generic protocols

• .github/instructions/{group}.instructions.md

  — per-group instruction files
• Removes old

  .github/common.copilot-instructions.md

  if it exists

Phase 2: AI Enrichment (This Skill)

After the script runs, the AI MUST ATTENTION enrich the generated instruction files:

1. For each per-group instruction file in

   .github/instructions/

   :
   • Read the corresponding

     docs/project-reference/*.md

     source file
   • Extract the

     ##

     section headings from the source file
   • Add a "Key Sections" list under each doc entry showing the headings
   • Keep it concise — headings only, no content duplication

2. For

   .github/copilot-instructions.md

   :
   • Verify the TL;DR golden rules in

     docs/copilot-registry.json

     →

     projectInstructions.goldenRules

     still match CLAUDE.md
   • Check if any new project-reference files exist but are missing from

     docs/copilot-registry.json

   • If missing entries found, add them to the registry and re-run the script

3. For

   docs/copilot-registry.json

   :
   • Verify each

     summary

     field accurately describes the current file content
   • Update stale summaries based on actual file content
   • Add entries for any new

     docs/project-reference/*.md

     files

Phase 3: Verification

Check that:

• .github/copilot-instructions.md

  contains project-specific content

• .github/instructions/common-protocol.instructions.md

  contains protocols + workflow catalog
• Per-group instruction files contain READ prompts
• No old

  common.copilot-instructions.md

  file remains
• Workflow count matches workflows.json
• All project-reference files are represented in the registry

AI Enrichment Protocol

When enriching per-group instruction files, follow this pattern for each doc entry:

## [Doc Title](relative/path)

**Summary:** One-line summary from registry.

**Key Sections:**

- Section 1 Name
- Section 2 Name
- Section 3 Name
- ...

> **READ** `docs/project-reference/filename.md` when: trigger description

Rules:

• Extract ONLY

  ##

  level headings from the source file (not

  ###

  or deeper)
• Do NOT copy content — just list heading names
• Keep the READ prompt from the registry

  whenToRead

  field
• If a file is very large (>30KB), note the file size:

  (~59KB - read relevant sections)

Output Files

.github/copilot-instructions.md

.github/instructions/common-protocol.instructions.md

**/*

.github/instructions/backend-csharp.instructions.md

**/*.cs

.github/instructions/frontend-angular.instructions.md

**/*.ts,**/*.html

.github/instructions/styling-scss.instructions.md

**/*.scss,**/*.css

.github/instructions/testing.instructions.md

**/*Test*/**,...

.github/instructions/project-reference.instructions.md

**/*

Copilot Limitations

Copilot can't enforce protocols like Claude Code hooks:

• No blocking operations (edit-enforcement)
• Relies on LLM instruction-following (not guaranteed)
• Protocols are advisory, not enforced
• No runtime context injection — all context must be in instruction files

Benefits:

• Consistent guidance across AI tools
• Same workflow detection for Claude and Copilot users
• READ prompts enable on-demand context loading
• Automated sync reduces configuration drift

Troubleshooting

Issue: "workflows.json not found"

Solution: Ensure you're running from project root

Issue: Missing project-reference files in registry

Solution: Add entries to

docs/copilot-registry.json

Issue: Stale summaries

Solution: Run this skill — AI will read files and update summaries

Related Skills

• /ai-dev-tools-sync

  — Broader Claude/Copilot sync (skills, prompts, agents)

• /sync-copilot-workflows

  — Workflow-only sync (subset of this skill)

References

• Script:

  .claude/scripts/sync-copilot-workflows.cjs

• Registry:

  docs/copilot-registry.json

• Sources:

  .claude/workflows.json

  ,

  .claude/docs/development-rules.md

• Main output:

  .github/copilot-instructions.md

• Instruction files:

  .github/instructions/*.instructions.md

Closing Reminders

• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using

  TaskCreate

  BEFORE starting
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite

  file:line

  evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act)
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact. <!-- /SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction. <!-- /SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->