Asking GitHub Copilot questions in your IDE

Prerequisites

• Access to GitHub Copilot. See Was ist GitHub Copilot?.
• Aktuelle Version von Visual Studio Code. Weitere Informationen findest du auf der Downloadseite zu Visual Studio Code.
• Installieren Sie die GitHub Copilot-Erweiterung aus dem Visual Studio-Marktplatz. Weitere Informationen findest du unter Einrichten von GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code in der Microsoft-Dokumentation.
• Logge dich in GitHub in Visual Studio Code ein. Bei Problemen mit der Authentifizierung findest du unter Behandlung von Problemen mit GitHub Copilot Chat in IDEs weitere Informationen.

Wenn Sie über Ihre Organisation oder Ihr Unternehmen Zugriff auf GitHub Copilot haben, können Sie GitHub Copilot Chat nicht verwenden, wenn der Organisationsbesitzer oder der Administrator Ihres Unternehmens den Chat deaktiviert hat. Weitere Informationen findest du unter Verwalten von Richtlinien für Copilot in Ihrer Organisation.

Submitting prompts

You can ask Copilot Chat to give code suggestions, explain code, generate unit tests, and suggest code fixes.

1. Zum Öffnen der Chat-Ansicht klicken Sie auf das Chat-Symbol in der Aktivitätsleiste oder drücken Control+Command+i (Mac) / Strg+Alt+i (Windows/Linux).

   

   Tip

   For additional ways to access Copilot Chat, including inline with your code, see Additional ways to access Copilot Chat below.

2. Enter a prompt in the prompt box, or click one of the suggested prompts. For an introduction to the kinds of prompts you can use, see Getting started with prompts for Copilot Chat.

3. Evaluate Copilot's response, and make a follow up request if needed.

   The response may contain text, code blocks, buttons, images, URIs, and file trees. The response often includes interactive elements. For example, the response may include a menu to insert a code block, or a button to invoke a Visual Studio Code command.

   To see the files that Copilot Chat used to generate the response, select the Used n references dropdown at the top of the response. The references may include a link to a custom instructions file for your repository. This file contains additional information that is automatically added to all of your chat questions to improve the quality of the responses. For more information, see Adding repository custom instructions for GitHub Copilot.

Using keywords in your prompt

You can use special keywords to help Copilot understand your prompt. For examples, see Getting started with prompts for Copilot Chat.

Chat participants

Chat participants are like domain experts who have a specialty that they can help you with.

Copilot Chat can infer relevant chat participants based on your natural language prompt, improving discovery of advanced capabilities without you having to explicitly specify the participant you want to use in your prompt.

Alternatively, you can manually specify a chat participant to scope your prompt to a specific domain. To do this, type @ in the chat prompt box, followed by a chat participant name.

For a list of available chat participants, type @ in the chat prompt box. See also GitHub Copilot Chat cheat sheet or Chat participants in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Copilot Extensions chat participants

You can also install Copilot Extensions that provide chat participants. You can install these extensions from GitHub Marketplace and from Visual Studio Code Marketplace. For information about extensions from GitHub Marketplace that provide chat participants, see Verwenden von Erweiterungen zum Integrieren externer Tools in Copilot Chat.

Slash commands

Use slash commands to avoid writing complex prompts for common scenarios. To use a slash command, type / in the chat prompt box, followed by a command.

To see all available slash commands, type / in the chat prompt box. See also GitHub Copilot Chat cheat sheet or Slash commands in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Chat variables

Use chat variables to include specific context in your prompt. To use a chat variable, type # in the chat prompt box, followed by a chat variable.

To see all available chat variables, type # in the chat prompt box. See also GitHub Copilot Chat cheat sheet or Chat variables in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Using GitHub skills for Copilot

Copilot's GitHub-specific skills expand the type of information Copilot can provide. To access these skills in Copilot Chat, include @github in your question.

When you add @github to a question, Copilot dynamically selects an appropriate skill, based on the content of your question. You can also explicitly ask Copilot Chat to use a particular skill. You can do this in two ways:

• Use natural language to ask Copilot Chat to use a skill. For example, @github Search the web to find the latest GPT model from OpenAI.
• To specifically invoke a web search you can include the #web variable in your question. For example, @github #web What is the latest LTS of Node.js?

You can generate a list of currently available skills by asking Copilot: @github What skills are available?

Asking a question about a knowledge base

Organization owners can create knowledge bases, grouping together Markdown documentation across one or more repositories. For more information, see Verwalten von Copilot-Knowledge Bases.

You can tell Copilot to answer a question within the context of a knowledge base.

1. At the bottom of the Copilot Chat window, in the Ask Copilot or type / for commands text box, type @github #kb, then press Enter to open the knowledge base selector.
2. Pick one of your available knowledge bases using the arrow keys, then press Enter.
3. In the Ask Copilot or type / for commands text box, continue your message with your question, and then press Enter.
4. Copilot Chat will process your question and provide an answer, with citations from your knowledge base, in the chat window.

AI models for Copilot Chat

Du kannst das große Sprachmodell (LLM, Large Language Model) ändern, das Copilot verwendet, um Antworten auf Chatprompts zu generieren. Je nach Art der Fragen, die du stellst, kannst du feststellen, dass verschiedene Modelle besser funktionieren oder nützlichere Antworten bereitstellen. Weitere Informationen findest du unter Ändern des KI-Modells für Copilot Chat.

Additional ways to access Copilot Chat

In addition to submitting prompts through the chat view, you can submit prompts in other ways:

• Inline: To start an inline chat directly in the editor or integrated terminal, enter Command+i (Mac) / Ctrl+i (Windows/Linux).
• Quick chat: To open the quick chat dropdown, enter Shift+Command+i (Mac) / Shift+Ctrl+i (Windows/Linux)
• Smart actions: To submit prompts via the context menu, right click in your editor, select Copilot in the menu that appears, then select one of the actions. Smart actions can also be accessed via the sparkle icon that sometimes appears when you select a line of code.

See inline chat, quick chat, and chat smart actions in the Visual Studio Code documentation for more details.

Copilot Edits

Verwende Copilot Edits, um Änderungen an mehreren Dateien direkt aus einem einzigen Copilot Chat-Prompt vorzunehmen. In Copilot Edits sind die folgenden Modi verfügbar:

• Bearbeitungsmodus: Verwende den Bearbeitungsmodus, wenn du genauere Kontrolle über die Bearbeitungen haben möchtest, die Copilot vorschlägt. Im Bearbeitungsmodus kannst du auswählen, an welchen Dateien Copilot Änderungen vornehmen kann, und du kannst mit jeder Iteration Kontext für Copilot bereitstellen. Zudem kannst du entscheiden, ob die jeweiligen vorgeschlagenen Änderungen akzeptiert werden sollen.
• Agent-Modus (Public Preview): Verwende den Agent-Modus, wenn du im Zusammenhang mit einer bestimmten Aufgabe Copilot aktivieren möchtest, um deinen Code autonom zu bearbeiten. Im Agent-Modus bestimmt Copilot, an welchen Dateien Änderungen vorgenommen werden, es werden Codeänderungen und Terminalbefehle zum Abschließen der Aufgabe angeboten, und die Problembehandlung wird wiederholt, bis die ursprüngliche Aufgabe abgeschlossen ist.

Using edit mode

1. To start an edit session, select Open Copilot Edits from the Copilot Chat menu.
2. Optionally, add relevant files to the working set to indicate to GitHub Copilot which files you want to work on.
3. Submit a prompt. In response to your prompt, Copilot Edits determines which files in your working set to change and adds a short description of the change.
4. Review the changes and Apply or Discard the edits for each file.

For more detailed instructions, see Copilot Edits in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Using agent mode

1. To start an edit session, select Open Copilot Edits from the Copilot Chat menu.
2. Select Agent from the mode dropdown menu.
3. Submit a prompt. In response to your prompt, Copilot streams the edits in the editor, updates the working set, and if necessary, suggests terminal commands to run.
4. Review the changes. If Copilot suggested terminal commands, confirm whether or not Copilot can run them. In response, Copilot iterates and performs additional actions to complete the task in your original prompt.

For more information, see Copilot Edits in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Vision

Vision requires that you use the GPT-4o model and upload one of the following file types: JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg), PNG (.png), GIF (.gif), or WEBP (.webp).

You can attach images to your chat prompts to help Copilot understand your question. For example, you can attach a screenshot of a code snippet to ask Copilot to explain the code, or share mockups of new designs to ask Copilot to generate code.

You can drag and drop images into the chat window, or attach them through the VS Code UI.

Sharing feedback

To indicate whether a response was helpful, use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons that appear next to the response.

To leave feedback about the GitHub Copilot Chat extension, open an issue in the microsoft/vscode-copilot-release repository.

Further reading

• Prompt engineering for Copilot Chat
• Using Copilot Chat in VS Code and Getting started with GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code in the Visual Studio Code documentation
• Asking GitHub Copilot questions in GitHub
• Verantwortungsvolle Nutzung von GitHub Copilot Chat in Ihrer IDE
• GitHub-Nutzungsbedingungen für zusätzliche Produkte und Funktionen
• GitHub Copilot Trust Center
• GitHub Copilot FAQ