GitHub Copilot is ignoring commit message generation instructions in workspace settings in VS Code

Question

I'm using GitHub Copilot to generate commit messages. I'm not happy with the message it generates automatically by default on click of this "Generate Commit Message with Copilot" button.

So I followed the docs and did the setup in my repo as follows.

commit-message.md:

Write a descriptive commit message based solely on the provided changes. Follow these strict rules:


Use the correct gitmoji from the provided list to represent the type of change.
Separate subject from body with a blank line.
Use the body to explain what and why you have done something. In most cases, you can leave out details about how a change has been made.
In the body, use bullet points to describe everything.
Avoid vague terms like "update", "enhance", "improve", or "better".
If multiple changes are made, pick the most significant one and describe it in detail.
Message length is maximum 250 characters.
gitmojis:


🚧: Work in progress.
⚡️: Improve performance.
🐛: Fix a bug.
✨: Introduce new feature.
📝: Add or update documentation.
🚧: Work in progress.
✅: Add, update, or pass tests.
🔒️: Fix security issues.
♻️: Refactor code.

Workspace settings.json:

{
    "github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions": [
        {
            "file": "copilot/commit-message.md"
        },
        {
            "text": "Always add a comment: 'Generated by Copilot'."
        }
    ],
    "github.copilot.chat.agent.runTasks": true
}

Now when I click on "Generate Commit Message" button, the instructions are ignored and a simple message is generated.

I tried restarting VS Code and even my machine. But still getting the same result. So when I checked the settings from Settings UI. I noticed that its under "Experimental".

I'm running the latest version of VS Code, GitHub Copilot extensions.

VS Code:

Extensions:

Do I need to enable any extra settings? I'm not able to find anything in docs either.

Answer 1

I figured it out. The issue is with the path. Notice the ./ prefix in file path. That solved it.

{
    "github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions": [
        {
            "file": "./copilot/commit-messages.md"
        },
        {
            "text": "Generated by Copilot."
        }
    ]
}