GitHub Copilot Is Too Nice. Fix It With a Tone of Voice File.

GitHub Copilot's default behavior is overly agreeable and avoids criticism, leading to weak suggestions. A simple fix is creating a `voice-instructions.md` file in your repo with instructions that force Copilot to give direct, critical feedback — calling out mistakes, weak assumptions, unnecessary complexity, and hidden risks without softening the message. The post provides a ready-to-use instruction template and acknowledges the trade-off: the tone feels harsher and is less suitable for beginners, but produces better code and faster decisions for teams building real systems. The author also promotes a VS Code extension called Copilot Insights that shows Copilot plan and quota status inside VS Code.