Quickstart for GitHub Copilot

Quickly learn how to use GitHub Copilot.

In this article

Introduction

You can use Copilot to get answers to coding-related questions, such as how best to code something, how to fix a bug, or how someone else's code works. For full details of what Copilot can do, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

If you have access to Copilot Workspace, Copilot can also help you when you are editing files in a pull request on the GitHub website by offering you code completion suggestions. For more information about Copilot Workspace, see "Using Copilot to help you work on a pull request."

Instructions for using Copilot differ depending on where you are using it. This version of the quickstart is for GitHub. Click the tabs above for instructions on using Copilot in other environments.

Prerequisite

To use GitHub Copilot on the GitHub website, you must have an active GitHub Copilot subscription. For information about how to get access to Copilot, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

Asking your first question

  1. On GitHub, navigate to a repository and open a file.

  2. Click the Copilot icon () at the top right of the file view.

    Screenshot of the Copilot button, highlighted with a dark orange outline, at the top of the file view.

  3. Type a question in the "Ask Copilot" box at the bottom of the chat panel and press Enter.

    For example, you could enter:

    • Explain this file.
    • How could I improve this code?
    • How can I test this code?

    Copilot responds to your request in the panel.

  4. You can continue the conversation by asking a follow-up question. For example, you could type "tell me more" to get Copilot to expand on its last comment.

Other questions you can ask

There are many more things you can do with GitHub Copilot Chat in GitHub. For example:

  • Ask a general question about software development
  • Ask exploratory questions about a repository
  • Ask a question about a knowledge base
  • Find out about the changes in a pull request
  • Ask a question about a specific issue or commit

For more information, see "Asking GitHub Copilot questions in GitHub."

Next steps

GitHub Copilot provides coding suggestions as you type in your editor. You can also ask Copilot coding-related questions, such as how best to code something, how to fix a bug, or how someone else's code works. For full details of what Copilot can do, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

Instructions for using Copilot differ depending on where you are using it. This version of the quickstart is for Windows Terminal. Click the tabs above for instructions on using Copilot in other environments.

Prerequisites

  • Subscription to Copilot. To use GitHub Copilot in Windows Terminal, you must have an active GitHub Copilot subscription. For information about how to get access to Copilot, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

  • Windows Terminal Canary. Terminal Chat is only available in Windows Terminal Canary.

Use Copilot in Terminal Chat

After you've installed Windows Terminal Canary, you can use Copilot in Terminal Chat to ask command line-related questions.

  1. Open Settings from the dropdown menu.

    Screenshot of the dropdown menu in the Windows Terminal with the Settings item highlighted.

  2. Go to the Terminal Chat (Experimental) setting.

    Screenshot of the Settings menu in the Windows Terminal with the Terminal Chat (Experimental) item highlighted.

  3. Under Service Providers, select GitHub Copilot and Authenticate via GitHub to sign in.

Chat with GitHub Copilot

Note

If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization or enterprise, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot in Windows Terminal if your organization owner or enterprise administrator has disabled GitHub Copilot in the CLI. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."

  1. Open Terminal Chat (Experimental) in the dropdown menu.

  2. In the Terminal Chat chat window, type how do i list all markdown files in my directory then press Enter.

    Copilot's answer is displayed below your question.

  3. Click on an answer to insert it to the command line.

Next steps

GitHub Copilot provides coding suggestions as you type in your editor. You can also ask Copilot coding-related questions, such as how best to code something, how to fix a bug, or how someone else's code works. For full details of what Copilot can do, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

Instructions for using Copilot differ depending on where you are using it. This version of the quickstart is for Visual Studio Code. Click the tabs above for instructions on using Copilot in other environments.

Prerequisites

Chat with GitHub Copilot

After you've installed the GitHub Copilot extension, you can ask Copilot coding-related questions.

Note

If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization or enterprise, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot Chat if your organization owner or enterprise administrator has disabled chat. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."

  1. Open an existing code file.

  2. Open the Chat view from the Activity Bar.

    Screenshot of the Chat icon in the VS Code Activity Bar.

  3. At the bottom of the chat view, in the chat input field, type: explain this file.

  4. Press Enter.

    Copilot replies in the chat view.

  5. In the editor, select one or more lines of code that are not commented.

  6. In the chat input field, type: add comments to these lines.

  7. If you like the comments that Copilot suggests, hover over the suggested code in the chat view and click the "Insert at Cursor" icon to replace the selected lines with the suggested code.

    Screenshot of the "Insert at Cursor" icon in the chat view.

Get your first code completion suggestion

The following example uses JavaScript, however other languages will work similarly. GitHub Copilot provides suggestions for numerous languages and a wide variety of frameworks, but works especially well for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C# and C++. GitHub Copilot can also assist in query generation for databases, generating suggestions for APIs and frameworks, and can help with infrastructure as code development.

  1. Open Visual Studio Code.

  2. In Visual Studio Code, create a new JavaScript (*.js) file.

  3. In the JavaScript file, type the following function header.

    JavaScript
    function calculateDaysBetweenDates(begin, end) {

    GitHub Copilot will automatically suggest an entire function body in grayed text. The exact suggestion may vary.

  4. To accept the suggestion, press Tab.

Next steps

GitHub Copilot provides coding suggestions as you type in your editor. You can also ask Copilot coding-related questions, such as how best to code something, how to fix a bug, or how someone else's code works. For full details of what Copilot can do, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

Instructions for using Copilot differ depending on where you are using it. This version of the quickstart is for Visual Studio. Click the tabs above for instructions on using Copilot in other environments.

Prerequisites

  • Subscription to Copilot. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, you must have an active GitHub Copilot subscription. For information about how to get access to Copilot, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

  • Compatible version of Visual Studio. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, you must have version 2022 17.8 or later of Visual Studio for Windows installed. For more information, see "Install Visual Studio" in the Microsoft documentation.

  • GitHub Copilot extension for Visual Studio. For instructions on how to install the Copilot extension, see "Install GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio" in the Microsoft documentation.

  • Add your GitHub account to Visual Studio. See Add your GitHub accounts to your Visual Studio keychain in the Microsoft documentation.

Chat with GitHub Copilot

After you've installed the GitHub Copilot extension, you can ask Copilot coding-related questions.

Note

If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization or enterprise, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot Chat if your organization owner or enterprise administrator has disabled chat. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."

  1. Open an existing code file.

  2. In the Visual Studio menu bar, click View, then click GitHub Copilot Chat.

  3. In the Copilot Chat window, type what does this file do then press Enter.

    Copilot's answer is displayed below your question.

  4. Select a line of code in the editor.

  5. In the Copilot Chat window, type explain this line then press Enter.

Get your first code completion suggestion

The following example uses JavaScript, however other languages will work similarly. GitHub Copilot provides suggestions for numerous languages and a wide variety of frameworks, but works especially well for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C# and C++. GitHub Copilot can also assist in query generation for databases, generating suggestions for APIs and frameworks, and can help with infrastructure as code development.

  1. Open Visual Studio.

  2. In Visual Studio, create a new JavaScript (*.js) file.

  3. In the JavaScript file, type the following function header.

    JavaScript
    function calculateDaysBetweenDates(begin, end) {

    GitHub Copilot will automatically suggest an entire function body in grayed text. The exact suggestion may vary.

  4. To accept the suggestion, press Tab.

Next steps

GitHub Copilot provides coding suggestions as you type in your editor. You can also ask Copilot coding-related questions, such as how best to code something, how to fix a bug, or how someone else's code works. For full details of what Copilot can do, see "What is GitHub Copilot?."

Instructions for using Copilot differ depending on where you are using it. This version of the quickstart is for JetBrains IDEs. Click the tabs above for instructions on using Copilot in other environments.

Prerequisites

Chat with GitHub Copilot

After you've installed the GitHub Copilot plugin, you can ask Copilot coding-related questions.

Note

If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization or enterprise, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot Chat if your organization owner or enterprise administrator has disabled chat. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."

  1. Open an existing code file.

  2. Open the Copilot Chat window by clicking the Copilot Chat icon at the right side of the JetBrains IDE window.

    Screenshot of the Copilot Chat icon in the Activity Bar.

  3. In the Copilot Chat window, type what does this file do then press Enter.

    Copilot's answer is displayed below your question.

  4. Select a line of code in the editor.

  5. In the Copilot Chat window, type explain this line then press Enter.

Get your first code completion suggestion

The following example uses JavaScript, however other languages will work similarly. GitHub Copilot provides suggestions for numerous languages and a wide variety of frameworks, but works especially well for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C# and C++. GitHub Copilot can also assist in query generation for databases, generating suggestions for APIs and frameworks, and can help with infrastructure as code development.

  1. In your JetBrains editor, create a new JavaScript (*.js) file.

  2. In the JavaScript file, type the following function header.

    JavaScript
    function calculateDaysBetweenDates(begin, end) {

    GitHub Copilot will automatically suggest an entire function body in grayed text. The exact suggestion may vary.

  3. To accept the suggestion, press Tab.

Next steps