About indexing repositories
GitHub Copilot's ability to answer natural language questions, in the context of a GitHub repository, is improved when the repository has been indexed for semantic code search.
Indexing repositories for Copilot Chat is not a requirement and will not affect responses to questions about information in knowledge bases, pull requests, issues, discussions, or commits. However, indexing is for search purposes and can help Copilot Chat answer questions that relate directly to the code within a repository. Copilot Chat will not use your indexed repository for model training.
The indexing status of a repository is displayed on GitHub when you start a conversation that has a repository context. You can index the repository if it has not been indexed yet.
After you index a repository it is automatically re-indexed every time a change is pushed to the repository.
Indexing limits
Your GitHub Copilot subscription plan determines your indexing limits.
| Copilot Individual | Copilot Business | Copilot Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repository limit | 5 | 50 | Unlimited |
If you have a seat on the Copilot Business (CB) plan, you are subject to the indexing limit for your organization. Additionally, you can only index repositories that belong to the GitHub organization that assigned your Copilot seat. You cannot index additional repositories once your organization reaches the repository limit, but you can still benefit from the indexes created by other users.
If you have a Copilot Individual (CI) plan, you are subject to an indexing limit and can index any repository that you have access to. However, you can still benefit from the indexes created by other users without affecting your limit.
Both CE and CB plans can apply content exclusions to control the behavior of GitHub Copilot for the Copilot seats they manage. For more information, see "Excluding content from GitHub Copilot." However, CI users can still index any repository they have access to, regardless of the content exclusion policies set by the organization.
Warning
Indexing is permanent for each repository unless the repository itself is deleted. Use caution when selecting a repository to index. Repository indexing cannot be canceled once it starts.
Indexing a repository
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On GitHub, browse to the repository you want to index.
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On any page, click the Copilot icon in the bottom right corner.
If the repository has been indexed, this is shown near top of the Copilot Chat panel.
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If the repository has not been indexed, an Index REPOSITORY NAME button is displayed. Click this button to start the indexing process.
Initial indexing can take up to 30 minutes for a large repository. Once a repository has been indexed for the first time, re-indexing is much quicker and the index will typically be automatically updated within 5 minutes of each push to the repository.
