diff --git a/.github/copilot-instructions.md b/.github/copilot-instructions.md
index 3c056b50f73..b1768dbeb83 100644
--- a/.github/copilot-instructions.md
+++ b/.github/copilot-instructions.md
@@ -102,3 +102,4 @@ Run all commands from the repo root (where `azldev.toml` lives). If the terminal
 3. **Schema validation**: The authoritative schema is `external/schemas/azldev.schema.json`. Do NOT add `$schema` keys to TOML files — `$` is invalid at the start of a bare TOML key.
 4. **Don't edit generated output**: Build artifacts in `base/out/` and `base/build/` are generated (configured by `output-dir`, `log-dir`, `work-dir` in `base/project.toml`) — never edit them directly. Note: `prep-sources -o <dir>` writes to a user-specified directory, separate from these project output dirs.
 5. **Mandatory testing**: Any change that affects a component's output (overlays, build config, spec edits, version bumps, new components) MUST be validated by building AND testing the resulting RPMs. A successful build alone is not sufficient — smoke-test in a mock chroot. Pure organizational changes (moving definitions between files, editing descriptions/comments) do not require rebuild. See `AGENTS.md` for the full testing protocol.
+6. **New specs use autorelease**: For any spec we author ourselves (local specs), use `%autorelease` and `%autochangelog` rather than a static `Release:` with a hand-written `%changelog`. Set the component's `release = { calculation = "autorelease" }` in its `.comp.toml` so azldev preserves and expands the macros. This is the team convention for newly authored specs even though it differs from upstream-Fedora overlay handling.