GitHub Copilot

Integrate Intutic governance with GitHub Copilot — the AI pair programmer.

How it works

Intutic writes active SOP governance rules into a marked section of .github/copilot-instructions.md, Copilot's repository-specific instructions file. Your own instructions in the file are kept. GitHub Copilot automatically loads these instructions for chat queries and inline completions, ensuring recommendations align with your guidelines. In VS Code agent mode it also installs a PreToolUse hook that refuses tool calls breaking a rule — see Pre-tool hooks.

Setup

1. Initialize Intutic

npx @intutic/cli init

The CLI detects GitHub Copilot presence (via .git or .github folders) and registers it as a harness:

  ✔ github-copilot → /path/to/project/.github/copilot-instructions.md

intutic init only detects the harness and records it in ~/.intutic/config.json; it writes no harness files. The files described on this page are written by intutic gates install (open core, no control plane), from the rule sets in .intutic/sops/ — see What writes harness files:

intutic gates install

2. Start the proxy

intutic start

What gets written

Intutic writes rules and configures:

• Instructions: the section between <!-- INTUTIC:RULES:START --> and <!-- INTUTIC:RULES:END --> in .github/copilot-instructions.md, holding the active rules and the proxy URL reference. The file is created if it does not exist; nothing outside the markers is changed. See Where rule sets go.
• Agent-mode hook (Preview): .github/hooks/intutic-governance.json (workspace) and ~/.copilot/hooks/intutic-governance.json (user), registering the blocking gate .intutic/hooks/github-copilot-check.js. The Intutic gate refuses an agent tool call that names either hook file; if one is deleted or loses the gate, intutic gates install writes it back.

To undo what intutic gates install writes here, run intutic disconnect --harness github-copilot: each file goes back to what it held before Intutic first wrote it, or is deleted if Intutic created it, and edits you made since are kept. In .github/copilot-instructions.md only the marked section is taken out. See intutic disconnect.

Pre-tool hooks (Preview)

Preview feature

VS Code agent hooks are a Preview mechanism and the format may change between releases. The generated gate fails closed: a stdin payload it does not recognise is refused (exit 2) rather than silently allowed, so a format shift surfaces as loud blocks — run intutic gates install after upgrading so it rewrites the gate.

In agent mode, Copilot fires the PreToolUse hook before each tool call with JSON on stdin ({session_id, cwd, hook_event_name, tool_name, tool_input, tool_use_id}). The gate evaluates the compiled protection floor plus your policy snapshot — including WHERE (argPattern) rules matched against the serialized tool input — and refuses with exit code 2 (a "permissionDecision": "deny" from any hook also wins). The instructions file remains in place as an advisory layer; the hook is what enforces.

Keeping the hook on

VS Code loads hook files from .github/hooks and ~/.copilot/hooks by default, so the gate needs no VS Code setting. Two settings can still switch it off: chat.useHooks set to false turns every hook off, and an entry in chat.hookFilesLocations that maps .github/hooks or ~/.copilot/hooks (or the hook file itself) to false drops that location. No VS Code policy locks chat.hookFilesLocations, so Intutic protects the two keys instead:

• Every Intutic hook gate refuses an agent edit (Write, Edit) that sets either key, in any settings file, and a shell command that names either one (rules hook_settings.vscode_key_written and hook_settings.vscode_key_command).

To change hook settings yourself, edit them in VS Code's settings rather than through an agent.

The administrator's lock

For a hard lock, use VS Code's enterprise policies, deployed through Group Policy, Intune or a macOS configuration profile (AI settings in VS Code):

Policy	What it does
ChatHooks	Controls chat.useHooks. Set it to true so hooks cannot be switched off in settings; false disables every hook, Intutic's gate included.
ChatAllowManagedHooksOnly	Loads hooks only from enterprise-managed sources and plugins a policy force-enables, so a hook file an agent writes into a workspace does not load. With it set, deliver Intutic's hook through your managed source too, or the gate in .github/hooks does not load either.

ChatHooks applies to VS Code's Local agent harness, where these hooks run; it does not apply to Copilot sessions that use Agent Host.