How to use GitHub Copilot in VS Code: Step-by-Step Guide

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) has become a favorite among developers due to its rich set of features, including AI-powered coding assistance through GitHub Copilot. This tool is designed to make coding faster and more efficient by providing intelligent code suggestions as you type.

Whether you’re working on a project using JavaScript, TypeScript, or another programming language, GitHub Copilot is trained on a vast array of codebases to offer relevant and accurate suggestions. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through setting up and leveraging GitHub Copilot in VS Code to enhance your development workflow.

Key Takeaways

• Learn how to install and configure GitHub Copilot in VS Code.
• Discover how to leverage AI-powered code suggestions for faster development.
• Understand how to use GitHub Copilot for generating code and solving complex coding challenges.
• Explore the advanced features of GitHub Copilot to improve your coding efficiency.
• Apply practical examples using JavaScript and TypeScript to real-world projects.

Understanding GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is revolutionizing the way developers write code. It’s an AI-powered tool designed to assist in coding by providing real-time suggestions and completions.

What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an innovative coding assistant powered by a large language model trained on billions of lines of public code from GitHub repositories. This training enables Copilot to understand and generate code in numerous programming languages and a wide variety of frameworks.

• It’s designed to analyze the context of your code, including variable names, function signatures, and comments.
• Copilot generates relevant code suggestions as you type, offering real-time code completions.

How AI-Powered Coding Assistance Works

The AI behind GitHub Copilot continuously evaluates your coding context to provide accurate suggestions. As you work, Copilot learns from patterns in your code, enabling it to generate complex algorithms, boilerplate code, and even documentation.

• The suggestions appear as “ghost text” that you can accept, modify, or reject as needed.
• Copilot’s capabilities improve over time as the underlying AI model is updated and refined with more training data.

Prerequisites for Using GitHub Copilot

Before diving into GitHub Copilot, it’s essential to prepare your development environment. This involves ensuring your system meets the necessary requirements and installing the required software.

System Requirements

To use GitHub Copilot with Visual Studio Code, your system should meet certain requirements. Although GitHub Copilot can run on various configurations, having a compatible and updated version of Studio Code is crucial.

The primary requirement is to have a compatible operating system and a relatively modern processor. Ensuring your system is up-to-date and meets these basic requirements will provide a solid foundation for using GitHub Copilot effectively.

Required Software Installation

To get started with GitHub Copilot, you’ll need to install a few pieces of software. Here’s a list of what’s required:

• Download and install the latest version of Visual Studio Code from its official website.
• Create a GitHub account if you don’t already have one, as GitHub Copilot requires authentication through GitHub.
• Install the GitHub Copilot extension from the VS Code marketplace or directly through the extensions panel in VS Code.
• For many development scenarios, especially those involving JavaScript or TypeScript projects, installing Node.js is recommended.
• Having Git installed on your system will allow you to fully leverage GitHub integration features alongside GitHub Copilot.
• Depending on your specific development needs, you may also need to install language-specific extensions in VS Code to maximize the benefits of GitHub Copilot’s suggestions.

Getting Access to GitHub Copilot

The first step in utilizing GitHub Copilot involves understanding the available access options.

GitHub Copilot Free Plan

The GitHub Copilot Free Plan offers a limited introduction to its features. It’s ideal for individuals who want to try out the AI-powered coding assistance.

Paid Subscription Options

Paid Subscription Options for GitHub Copilot provide full access to its capabilities, making it suitable for professionals and organizations.

Organization Access

If you are part of an organization with a GitHub Copilot subscription, you can request access by visiting your GitHub settings. Key points to consider:

• Many organizations purchase GitHub Copilot licenses for their development teams.
• Request access through your GitHub settings if your organization has a Copilot subscription.
• Organization administrators manage seat assignments and control access to Copilot.
• Enterprise plans include additional administrative features and centralized billing.

How to Use GitHub Copilot in VS Code

To start leveraging GitHub Copilot‘s capabilities in VS Code, follow these straightforward steps. First, you need to install the GitHub Copilot extension.

Installing the GitHub Copilot Extension

The process of installing the GitHub Copilot extension is straightforward. You can find the extension in the VS Code marketplace. Simply search for “GitHub Copilot,” click on the result, and then click the “Install” button to begin the installation process.

Signing in with Your GitHub Account

After installing the extension, you’ll need to sign in with your GitHub account to activate the service. Click on the Copilot icon in the status bar, select “Sign in to GitHub,” and follow the authentication prompts. If you’re already signed into GitHub in VS Code, you may be able to skip some steps. Once authenticated, VS Code will confirm that you can now use Copilot and have the appropriate access.

Setting Up GitHub Copilot in VS Code

To get the most out of GitHub Copilot, it’s essential to set it up correctly within your VS Code environment. This involves not just installing the extension, but also configuring it to suit your coding needs and preferences.

Configuring Copilot Settings

Configuring the settings for GitHub Copilot allows you to tailor its functionality to your workflow. You can adjust these settings to control how Copilot interacts with your code and the level of suggestions it provides. For instance, you can modify settings related to code completion and the overall behavior of Copilot within VS Code.

To access these settings, navigate to the VS Code settings panel and search for “Copilot.” Here, you’ll find various options to customize your experience, including settings related to code suggestions and how Copilot handles public code references.

Telemetry and Privacy Options

GitHub Copilot collects telemetry data to improve its service, but you have control over what information is shared. By default, telemetry is enabled in the free version of GitHub Copilot to help enhance the service. However, you can opt out of telemetry data collection by adjusting your VS Code settings and setting telemetry.telemetryLevel to “off.”

Copilot also has settings related to how it handles suggestions that match public code repositories. Privacy-conscious users can configure Copilot to minimize data sharing while still benefiting from AI-powered suggestions. Understanding these settings is particularly important for developers working on proprietary or sensitive codebases.

As noted by GitHub, “Telemetry data helps us understand how our tools are being used and how we can improve them.” Configuring these settings allows you to balance the benefits of using GitHub Copilot with your privacy preferences.

“The key to getting the most out of GitHub Copilot is understanding its capabilities and configuring it to fit your specific needs.”

Getting Your First Code Suggestions

Now that you have GitHub Copilot set up in VS Code, let’s dive into getting your first code suggestions. This step is crucial as it introduces you to how AI-powered coding assistance works in real-time.

Creating a Test File

To start receiving code suggestions, you need to create a test file. Open VS Code, go to the File menu, and select “New File.” Save this file with a relevant extension (e.g., .js` for JavaScript) to activate GitHub Copilot’s suggestions.

Understanding Ghost Text Suggestions

GitHub Copilot provides code suggestions in the form of “ghost text.” This is the code that appears faded or gray in your editor, indicating a potential completion for your current line of code. Ghost text suggestions are context-dependent and update as you type.

Accepting and Navigating Suggestions

To accept a suggestion, simply press the Tab key. Congratulations! You’ve just accepted your first AI-powered code suggestion. As you continue typing, Copilot updates the code suggestion accordingly. You can navigate through multiple suggestions using keyboard shortcuts like Alt+[ and Alt+] (or Option+[ and Option+] on Mac). If you want to dismiss a suggestion without accepting it, you can press Escape.

• When you see a ghost text suggestion you want to use, press the Tab key to accept it and insert it into your code.
• If you want to ignore a suggestion, simply continue typing and it will disappear as you write your own code.
• GitHub Copilot often generates multiple alternative suggestions for the same context. Use the keyboard shortcuts to cycle through them.

Working with Code Completions

When working with GitHub Copilot, you’ll often have multiple suggestions to choose from, allowing you to pick the best fit for your code. As you type, GitHub Copilot provides code completions that can significantly speed up your development process.

Navigating Multiple Suggestions

For any given input, there might be multiple suggestions. You can hover over the suggestion in the editor and use the arrow controls or keyboard shortcuts to navigate through them.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Suggestions

To efficiently work with GitHub Copilot suggestions, learn the keyboard shortcuts. Press Tab to accept suggestion. Use Alt+] (or Option+] on Mac) to cycle to the next alternative suggestion, and Alt+[ (or Option+[ on Mac) to view the previous one on Windows or other platforms.

Using Editor Inline Chat

The editor inline chat feature, integrated with GitHub Copilot, enables developers to write code using conversational language. This functionality streamlines the coding process by allowing developers to interact with Copilot directly within the editor.

Accessing Inline Chat

To access the inline chat, you need to have the GitHub Copilot extension installed in your VS Code. Once installed, you can initiate the chat by invoking the appropriate command or shortcut, making it straightforward to start generating code with natural language inputs.

Generating Code with Natural Language

With inline chat, you can describe the functionality or code you need, and GitHub Copilot will generate the corresponding code. This feature is particularly useful for rapid prototyping or when you’re unsure about the implementation details of a specific functionality.

Accepting or Modifying Generated Code

After Copilot generates code through inline chat, you can review it before deciding whether to accept suggestion. To accept, you can either click the “Accept” button or press enter (⌘Enter on Mac or Ctrl+Enter on Windows/Linux). If needed, you can also modify the generated code or provide more specific instructions to refine the output.

Refactoring Code with AI Chat

GitHub Copilot’s chat functionality simplifies the code refactoring process, making it more efficient. By leveraging AI-powered suggestions, developers can improve code quality and maintainability.

Selecting Code for Refactoring

To refactor code using GitHub Copilot’s chat, start by selecting the code snippet you want to modify. This can be done by highlighting the relevant lines of code in your editor. Once selected, you can initiate a chat session by invoking the Copilot chat interface.

Providing Clear Refactoring Instructions

Clear instructions are crucial for effective refactoring with GitHub Copilot. Type specific prompts, such as “use an environment variable for the port number,” to guide the AI in making the desired changes. You can then review and accept the proposed changes or refine your prompt for alternative solutions.

Using Copilot Chat for Programming Questions

With GitHub Copilot, you can leverage the chat feature to get detailed explanations and code examples for your programming questions. This functionality is designed to assist you in understanding complex concepts and resolving coding issues efficiently.

Opening the Chat View

To start using Copilot Chat, you need to open the chat view in your VS Code editor. This is typically done by clicking on the chat icon or using a specific keyboard shortcut.

Asking General Programming Questions

Once the chat view is open, you can ask general programming questions. For example, typing “what is recursion?” and pressing Enter will prompt Copilot to provide a detailed response, including explanatory text and relevant code examples.

Understanding Chat Responses

Copilot Chat responses are designed to be informative, providing not just answers but also explaining concepts. These responses often include code blocks with syntax highlighting, making it easier to understand and implement the suggested code.

Making Edits Across Multiple Files

With GitHub Copilot, editing across multiple files becomes a streamlined process. This capability is particularly useful when working on complex projects that require modifications across several files.

Starting an AI-Powered Editing Session

To start making edits across multiple files, you simply need to initiate a chat with GitHub Copilot. By describing the changes you need, Copilot generates the necessary edits across the relevant files. This process is facilitated by the AI-powered suggestions that Copilot provides.

Reviewing and Accepting Multi-File Changes

After Copilot generates changes, you’ll see an overview of all modified files. You can navigate through each file, reviewing the changes individually before accepting them. The overlay controls allow you to accept or reject changes for each file. If satisfied, you can apply all modifications at once using the “Keep” button, making it easier to use GitHub effectively for your projects.

Fixing Coding Errors with AI

GitHub Copilot’s AI-powered coding assistance extends to debugging, making it easier to identify and fix coding errors. This feature is particularly useful for developers looking to streamline their coding process.

Identifying Errors with Red Squiggles

When a coding error is detected, a red squiggle appears under the problematic code. Next to the error, a sparkle icon may be visible, indicating that AI-powered code actions are available to fix the issue.

Using AI Code Actions to Fix Errors

By selecting the sparkle icon and then choosing “Fix using Copilot,” developers can access AI-driven suggestions to resolve the error. The inline chat interface will display a pre-populated explanation of the error and a proposed code fix. For dependency-related issues, Copilot may suggest terminal commands, which can be directly copied to the terminal. This feature significantly enhances the debugging process by providing actionable suggestions and relevant code changes.

Switching Between GitHub Accounts

If you need to switch between different GitHub accounts for various projects, VS Code makes it easy to do so. This flexibility is particularly useful for developers who work on multiple projects that require different GitHub accounts.

Signing Out of Current Account

To switch between GitHub accounts, you first need to sign out of your current account. You can do this by accessing the Command Palette in VS Code.

• Open the Command Palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Command+Shift+P (Mac).
• Type “GitHub Copilot: Sign out” in the Command Palette and select it when it appears.

Connecting a Different GitHub Account

After signing out, you can connect a different GitHub account to access Copilot. To do this:

• Open the Command Palette again and type “GitHub Copilot: Sign in.”
• Alternatively, click on the Accounts icon in the Activity Bar and select “Sign in with GitHub to use GitHub Copilot.”
• A browser window will open, prompting you to authorize VS Code to access your new GitHub account.
• Complete the authentication process by following the prompts in your browser.

Once you’ve signed in with your new GitHub account, VS Code will connect to it and activate Copilot based on your subscription status.

Advanced GitHub Copilot Features

One of the key strengths of GitHub Copilot is its ability to support multiple programming languages, enhancing its utility in different development environments. This feature makes it an indispensable tool for developers working on diverse projects.

Using Copilot with Different Programming Languages

While our tutorial focuses on JavaScript and TypeScript, GitHub Copilot is trained on numerous other languages and a wide variety of frameworks. This broad training enables Copilot to provide valuable assistance across different programming paradigms.

Key Benefits:

• Assistance with various programming languages
• Support for multiple frameworks
• Adaptability to different development environments

Leveraging Copilot for Complex Projects

GitHub Copilot becomes increasingly valuable as project complexity grows, helping manage intricate codebases. For complex projects, Copilot can understand project structure and relationships between different components, making it easier to generate boilerplate code for design patterns and suggest optimized implementations.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

To get the most out of GitHub Copilot, it’s essential to know how to troubleshoot common problems that may arise during its use.

While GitHub Copilot is designed to enhance your coding experience, issues can occur. Understanding how to address these issues will help you use the tool more effectively.

Connection Problems

If GitHub Copilot isn’t providing suggestions, check if it’s enabled for your current file type in the settings. Sometimes, a simple restart of VS Code can resolve connectivity issues or outdated suggestions.

• Verify that Copilot is enabled for the current file.
• Check your internet connection to ensure it’s stable.
• Restart VS Code if Copilot seems unresponsive.

Suggestion Quality Issues

If you’re receiving low-quality or irrelevant suggestions from GitHub Copilot, there are several strategies to improve them. Adding more context through comments and using descriptive variable names can help using Copilot understand your coding intentions better.

• Break complex tasks into smaller, manageable pieces.
• Provide example code patterns for specialized domains.
• Rephrase comments or instructions for better clarity.

Conclusion

Congratulations on mastering GitHub Copilot in VS Code! You’ve learned to use GitHub Copilot to enhance your coding experience, leveraging AI for code suggestions and edits. With this knowledge, you’ll boost your productivity and coding efficiency. To further your skills, explore the Copilot Chat Tutorial and Copilot Edits documentation. Stay updated with the latest AI-assisted development features and share your experiences to build best practices around this emerging technology.