1. Get access to GitHub Copilot
There are a few ways that you can get access to GitHub Copilot:
- Sign up for a subscription to GitHub Copilot Individual. You can try GitHub Copilot for free with a one-time 30-day trial. After the free trial, you will need a paid subscription for continued use.
- If you are a member of an organization or enterprise that has a subscription to GitHub Copilot, you can request access to Copilot by going to https://github.com/settings/copilot and requesting access under "Get Copilot from an organization."
- If you are a verified student, teacher, or maintainer of a popular open source project, GitHub Copilot is free to use. See "Getting free access to Copilot as a student, teacher, or maintainer."
2. Install the Copilot extension for your IDE
If you want to use Copilot in your IDE, install the Copilot extension for your IDE. See "Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in your environment."
3. Install the Copilot extension for the command line
If you want to use Copilot in the command line, install the Copilot extension for the GitHub CLI. See "Installing GitHub Copilot in the CLI."
4. Set up networking (if necessary)
If you connect through an HTTP proxy server or firewall, ensure that key URLs are added to the allowlist for the proxy server or firewall. See "Configuring your proxy server or firewall for Copilot."
You may also need to install a custom SSL certificate on your machine. See "Configuring network settings for GitHub Copilot."
5. Configure settings (optional)
All users can configure Copilot settings in their IDE or in the CLI. See "Configuring GitHub Copilot in your environment" and "Configuring GitHub Copilot in the CLI."
If you have your own subscription to Copilot (instead of using your organization or enterprise's subscription), you can:
- Install Copilot Extensions to integrate other tools with Copilot Chat. See "Extending the capabilities of GitHub Copilot in your personal account."
- Manage policies. See "Managing Copilot policies as an individual subscriber."
6. Start using Copilot
Start using Copilot to help you write code faster and more efficiently. For all the ways you can use Copilot, see "Using GitHub Copilot." Copilot code suggestions and Copilot Chat in your IDE is a great place to start.
To improve your Copilot results, follow these prompt engineering strategies: "Prompt engineering for GitHub Copilot."