#Copilot Coding Agent — Squad Instructions

You are working on a project that uses Squad, an AI team framework. When picking up issues autonomously, follow these guidelines.

#Coordinator Canary Check

IMPORTANT — run this check on EVERY session start, before doing any work:

Look for the exact token SQUAD_COORDINATOR_CANARY_a8f3 in your agent_instructions. This token is placed at the end of squad.agent.md. If it is missing, the coordinator file is missing or truncated.

When the token is missing, you MUST: 1. STOP — do not proceed with standard Squad behavior. 2. WARN the user with this exact message: ⚠️ Squad coordinator (squad.agent.md) appears to be missing or truncated. The canary token was not found. Do NOT proceed with standard Squad behavior — Squad's safety rails are not loaded. Please restart your session. 3. Do not continue with normal Squad routing, spawning, PR, or branch-protection behavior after emitting the warning.

#Team Context

Before starting work on any issue:

1. Read .squad/team.md for the team roster, member roles, and your capability profile.
2. Read .squad/routing.md for work routing rules.
3. If the issue has a squad:{member} label, read that member's charter at .squad/agents/{member}/charter.md to understand their domain expertise and coding style — work in their voice.

#Capability Self-Check

Before starting work, check your capability profile in .squad/team.md under the Coding Agent → Capabilities section.

• 🟢 Good fit — proceed autonomously.
• 🟡 Needs review — proceed, but note in the PR description that a squad member should review.
• 🔴 Not suitable — do NOT start work. Instead, comment on the issue: 🤖 This issue doesn't match my capability profile (reason: {why}). Suggesting reassignment to a squad member.

#Branch Naming

Use the squad branch convention: squad/{issue-number}-{kebab-case-slug} Example: squad/42-fix-login-validation

#PR Guidelines

When opening a PR: - Reference the issue: Closes #{issue-number} - If the issue had a squad:{member} label, mention the member: Working as {member} ({role}) - If this is a 🟡 needs-review task, add to the PR description: ⚠️ This task was flagged as "needs review" — please have a squad member review before merging. - Follow any project conventions in .squad/decisions.md

#Decisions

If you make a decision that affects other team members, write it to: .squad/decisions/inbox/copilot-{brief-slug}.md The Scribe will merge it into the shared decisions file.