add Copilot PR review instructions

[seanbudd]

Link to issue number:

None

Summary of the issue:

CoPilot PR reviews and agent work can be improved by writing instructions files.
This can minimize the work of NV Access, by automating some common review feedback we create.

Description of user facing changes:

None

Description of developer facing changes:

Improved CoPilot review instructions.

Fixed up user guide standards issues

Description of development approach:

Used CoPilot to generate, edited

Copied sections from other human facing docs and edited to simplify

Testing strategy:

None

Known issues with pull request:

None

Code Review Checklist:

• Documentation:
  • Change log entry
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Security precautions taken.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces a .github/copilot-instructions.md file to guide GitHub Copilot's automated pull request reviews for the NVDA codebase. The goal is to improve the quality and relevance of Copilot's review feedback by codifying NVDA-specific review goals, Python coding standards, PR checklist expectations, security checks, and comment style guidelines.

Changes:

• Adds a new .github/copilot-instructions.md file instructing Copilot on NVDA-specific review priorities, Python style conventions, PR checklist expectations, security checks, and preferred comment style.

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💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[makhlwf]

Are you sure that the Copilot agent can read the files mentioned in the instructions? From what I know, the agent will only be able to read files that are touched by the pull request itself and not others. For this, we have to include the content of the needed files in the instructions, or a summary of them, including the most important information, or direct links, assuming the agent has the ability to browse context links, which is not always the case.

[seanbudd]

@makhlwf - the PR includes a summary of the most important information. My understanding is the agent does gain wider context from your repo in general training, but the reviews themselves only check necessary related files. The agent does have to know about the rest of your repo to perform reviews already.

[SaschaCowley]

Some minor suggestions.

[seanbudd]

Thanks @XLTechie for your review - I think I've restructured this in a better way now

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

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💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[XLTechie]

@seanbudd I'm working for the next several hours; should be able to review this evening (it's 6:30 in the morning here now).

[seanbudd]

I'm going to merge this for now.
@XLTechie - happy to address review feedback in a subsequent PR. I think it might be worth getting this in with a "good" state before a "great" state