GitHub Copilot — AI Coding Assistant

GitHub Copilot — AI Coding Assistant

GitHub Copilot is the AI coding assistant built by GitHub (owned by Microsoft), powered by OpenAI models and trained on billions of lines of open-source code. It is the most widely used AI coding tool in the world, available as an extension for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Vim, Neovim, Visual Studio, and the GitHub CLI.

GitHub Copilot Products

Product	Description
Copilot in IDE	Real-time autocomplete and chat in your editor
Copilot Chat	Conversational AI assistant inside VS Code / JetBrains
Copilot CLI	AI in your terminal — explains commands, suggests fixes
Copilot in GitHub.com	Summarize PRs, explain code, generate fixes in the browser
Copilot Workspace	Cloud-based agentic development environment
Copilot Agent Mode	Autonomous multi-step coding tasks in VS Code
Copilot Extensions	Third-party integrations (Datadog, Sentry, Docker, etc.)

Features

Autocomplete

The original Copilot feature — as you type, Copilot suggests entire functions, classes, or blocks based on:

• Your current file context
• Comments and docstrings
• The file name and surrounding code
• Patterns from billions of similar code snippets

Press Tab to accept, Esc to reject, or Alt+] to cycle through suggestions.

Copilot Chat

Chat about code inside your IDE:

@workspace — reference your entire open project
@file — reference a specific file
#selection — reference highlighted code
#terminal — reference terminal output

Common prompts:

• “Explain this function”
• “What tests should I write for this?”
• “Fix the bug in #selection”
• “Refactor @file to use async/await”

Agent Mode (VS Code)

Copilot’s Agent Mode in VS Code allows multi-step autonomous tasks:

1. Describe a feature or fix
2. Copilot reads relevant files
3. Makes edits across multiple files
4. Runs terminal commands (tests, build)
5. Retries on errors
6. Shows a full diff to approve

Copilot CLI

# Install
gh extension install github/gh-copilot

# Explain a command
gh copilot explain "git rebase -i HEAD~3"

# Suggest a command
gh copilot suggest "list all S3 buckets sorted by size"

Copilot Workspace

A browser-based environment where you describe a task and Copilot:

1. Generates a plan (specification)
2. Edits code in a cloud-based editor
3. Lets you run the project and iterate
4. Opens a PR on GitHub

Model Support

GitHub Copilot now lets you choose your model:

Model	Provider	Best For
GPT-4o	OpenAI	Fast, general coding
o3-mini / o4-mini	OpenAI	Reasoning, complex problems
Claude 3.7 Sonnet	Anthropic	Long context, code quality
Gemini 2.0 Flash	Google	Speed, Google ecosystem

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor vs Claude Code

Feature	GitHub Copilot	Cursor	Claude Code
Primary interface	Extension in any IDE	Dedicated IDE (VS Code fork)	Terminal
Autocomplete	Yes (industry-leading training)	Yes	N/A
Multi-file agent	Agent Mode (VS Code)	Composer	Yes
Model choice	GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, o3	Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini	Claude only
Works in JetBrains	Yes	No	Via terminal
Works in Vim/Neovim	Yes	No	Via terminal
GitHub integration	Native	Via git CLI	Via git CLI
Price	$10–$19/month	$20/month	Claude Pro $20/month

Plans

Plan	Price	Features
Individual	$10/month	Autocomplete, chat, CLI, 300 requests/month
Business	$19/user/month	Team management, audit logs, IP protection
Enterprise	$39/user/month	Fine-tuned model on your codebase, custom policies

GitHub Copilot is free for students, open-source maintainers, and verified teachers.

Privacy and Code Safety

• No public code filter — Copilot can optionally filter suggestions that match public code verbatim
• Organization policies — Admins can restrict which repos can use Copilot
• Enterprise data boundary — Enterprise plans ensure prompts are not used for training

Useful Links

• GitHub Copilot
• VS Code Copilot Chat Docs
• GitHub CLI (gh copilot)
• GitHub Copilot Workspace