Sign Up for a Copilot Plan

Go to github.com/features/copilot and choose your plan. The Free tier requires no credit card — just a GitHub account. Click “Get started with Free” or subscribe to Pro/Pro+ for more features. Your plan will be linked to your GitHub account.

Install the GitHub Copilot Extension

Open VS Code and navigate to the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X on Mac). Search for “GitHub Copilot” and install the official extension published by GitHub. This single extension now includes both completions and chat.

Authenticate with GitHub

After installing, VS Code will prompt you to sign in to GitHub. Click “Sign in to GitHub” in the notification that appears, or use the Copilot icon in the status bar. Complete the OAuth flow in your browser and authorize the extension.

Start Coding with Inline Suggestions

Open any code file and start typing. Copilot will display ghost text suggestions in gray. Press Tab to accept a suggestion, Esc to dismiss, or Alt+] / Alt+[ to cycle through alternatives. Write a comment describing what you want, and Copilot will suggest the implementation.

# Function to calculate compound interest
# with principal, rate, time, and compounding frequency
def compound_interest(principal, rate, time, n=12):
    # Copilot suggests this implementation ↓
    amount = principal * (1 + rate / n) ** (n * time)
    return round(amount - principal, 2)

Use Copilot Chat

Open the Copilot Chat panel with Ctrl+Shift+I (or Cmd+Shift+I on Mac). You can ask questions about your code, request refactoring, generate tests, or get explanations. Use @workspace to give Copilot context about your entire project.

You: @workspace Explain how authentication
works in this project and suggest improvements.

Copilot: Based on your codebase, authentication
is handled in src/auth/middleware.ts using
JWT tokens. Here are some improvements...

Open Copilot Edits

In VS Code, open the Copilot Chat panel and switch to Agent mode by selecting it from the mode dropdown (you’ll see options like “Ask”, “Edit”, and “Agent”). In JetBrains IDEs, Agent mode is also available in the Copilot tool window.

Describe Your Task

Type a natural language description of what you want to accomplish. Be specific about the outcome. For example:

"Add input validation to all API endpoints
in the /routes directory. Each endpoint should
validate request body fields, return 400 with
descriptive error messages for invalid input,
and log validation failures."

Review and Iterate

Agent mode will analyze your project, identify relevant files, and propose edits across multiple files. It may also run terminal commands to install packages or run tests. Review each proposed change — you can accept, reject, or ask the agent to revise specific parts before applying them.

Assign an Issue to Copilot

Navigate to any GitHub issue in your repository. In the “Assignees” section, assign the issue to Copilot — it appears as an available assignee on repos with Copilot enabled. Alternatively, you can tag @copilot in a comment on the issue.

Copilot Works Autonomously

Copilot reads the issue description, analyzes your repository’s code and context, creates an implementation plan, writes the code on a new branch, and runs your project’s test suite. It also runs security checks using CodeQL, secret scanning, and Copilot code review automatically.

Review the Pull Request

When Copilot finishes, it opens a pull request with its changes. Review the diff, leave comments, or ask Copilot to make revisions by commenting on the PR. Once you’re satisfied, merge as you would any other PR. You can also monitor progress on GitHub Mobile.

Install the GitHub CLI

Copilot CLI requires the GitHub CLI. Install it via your package manager:

# macOS
brew install gh

# Windows
winget install GitHub.cli

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install gh

Authenticate and Enable Copilot

Log in to GitHub through the CLI and install the Copilot extension:

gh auth login
gh extension install github/gh-copilot

Use Copilot in Your Terminal

Now you can ask Copilot to explain commands, suggest solutions, or help with Git operations directly from your terminal:

# Ask Copilot to explain a command
gh copilot explain "awk '{print $2}' file.txt"

# Ask Copilot to suggest a command
gh copilot suggest "find all .log files
  modified in the last 7 days and compress them"