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Update prompt tools#4132

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Update prompt tools#4132
mdaigle wants to merge 1 commit intomainfrom
dev/mdaigle/update-tools

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@mdaigle mdaigle commented Apr 2, 2026

Description

Enhance the functionality of various prompt tools by updating descriptions and improving the workflow for reviewing pull requests and generating prompts and skills. The changes include refining the descriptions for clarity, updating the tools used in the workflows, and ensuring that the prompts align with best practices.

Issues

No relevant issues are linked.

Testing

No automated tests were created or modified. Manual testing was performed to ensure that the updated descriptions and workflows function as intended.

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Please review the contribution guidelines before submitting a pull request:

@mdaigle mdaigle requested a review from a team as a code owner April 2, 2026 18:48
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings April 2, 2026 18:48
@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this to To triage in SqlClient Board Apr 2, 2026
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Pull request overview

Updates GitHub Copilot prompt files under .github/prompts/ to refine descriptions and adjust the declared toolsets used by prompt workflows (notably for code review, prompt generation, skill generation, and build pipeline updates).

Changes:

  • Updated several prompt frontmatters (descriptions / tools) to reflect revised workflows and tool usage.
  • Expanded the code-review prompt to support reviewing either a PR number or a branch name and added additional GitHub-related tools.
  • Added/adjusted tool declarations for generate-skill, generate-prompt, and update-build-pipelines.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File Description
.github/prompts/update-build-pipelines.prompt.md Swaps the search tool identifier in the prompt’s allowed tools list.
.github/prompts/generate-skill.prompt.md Adds agent + tool restrictions for skill generation.
.github/prompts/generate-prompt.prompt.md Adds a tools list for prompt generation.
.github/prompts/code-review.prompt.md Broadens scope to PR-or-branch reviews and expands GitHub tool access.

argument-hint: <describe the pipeline change needed>
agent: agent
tools: ['edit/createFile', 'edit/editFiles', 'read/readFile', 'codebase/search']
tools: ['edit/createFile', 'edit/editFiles', 'read/readFile', 'search']
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The prompt tool identifier was changed from codebase/search to search, but the other prompt workflows in this repo still consistently use codebase/search. Mixing tool naming schemes makes these prompts harder to maintain and may break if search isn’t available in the target environment. Consider standardizing on one scheme across .github/prompts/ (either keep codebase/search here, or migrate the rest in the same PR and document the expected tool set).

Suggested change
tools: ['edit/createFile', 'edit/editFiles', 'read/readFile', 'search']
tools: ['edit/createFile', 'edit/editFiles', 'read/readFile', 'codebase/search']

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description: Generate a GitHub Copilot Agent Skill (SKILL.md) following best practices and official documentation
argument-hint: Describe the skill you want to create (e.g., "debugging SQL connection issues")
agent: agent
tools: ['read/readFile', 'edit/createFile', 'search']
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This adds agent: agent/tools, but uses the generic search tool name while most other prompts in this repo declare codebase/search. To avoid confusion and potential runtime differences, standardize the search tool identifier across prompt files (or update the rest of the prompts in the same change).

Suggested change
tools: ['read/readFile', 'edit/createFile', 'search']
tools: ['read/readFile', 'edit/createFile', 'codebase/search']

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name: generate-prompt
description: Generates high-quality VS Code Copilot prompt files (.prompt.md) based on user descriptions, leveraging available skills.
argument-hint: Describe the prompt you want to create (e.g., "A prompt to generate unit tests for C#")
tools: [read, edit, search, todo]
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tools: [read, edit, search, todo] introduces a different tool declaration style than the rest of .github/prompts/ (which uses explicit tool IDs like read/readFile, edit/editFiles, codebase/search). Also, todo isn’t referenced anywhere else in the repo’s prompt files. Please standardize the tool list format/IDs with the other prompts (or update the rest consistently) and confirm that todo is a supported tool in the intended Copilot environment.

Suggested change
tools: [read, edit, search, todo]
tools: [read/readFile, edit/editFiles, codebase/search]

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argument-hint: <PR number or branch name>
agent: agent
tools: ['github/search_issues', 'read/readFile', 'codebase/search']
tools: ['github/search_issues', 'github/pull_request_read', 'github/get_file_contents', 'github/run_secret_scanning', 'read/readFile', 'search']
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The tools list grants broad capabilities (including github/run_secret_scanning) but the workflow text doesn’t mention using secret scanning, and no other prompts currently request it. Consider applying least-privilege here: either add an explicit step that uses secret scanning (and clarifies when to run it), or remove the tool to reduce permissions and avoid failures in environments where it isn’t available.

Suggested change
tools: ['github/search_issues', 'github/pull_request_read', 'github/get_file_contents', 'github/run_secret_scanning', 'read/readFile', 'search']
tools: ['github/search_issues', 'github/pull_request_read', 'github/get_file_contents', 'read/readFile', 'search']

Copilot uses AI. Check for mistakes.
@mdaigle mdaigle added this to the 7.1.0-preview1 milestone Apr 2, 2026
@paulmedynski paulmedynski self-assigned this Apr 6, 2026
@paulmedynski paulmedynski moved this from To triage to In review in SqlClient Board Apr 6, 2026
@mdaigle mdaigle enabled auto-merge (squash) April 6, 2026 18:26
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3 participants