Learning GitHub Copilot

Chapter 9. Using Copilot in GitHub

Like many other key software development tools, AI has been integrated into the GitHub ecosystem through Copilot. This means you can chat with Copilot directly in GitHub as well as use the AI capabilities to work directly with key functionality like pull requests and issues.

In this chapter, we’ll survey how Copilot has been integrated into GitHub and explain how you can effectively leverage its power when working in GitHub. We’ll cover the following:

• Using Copilot Chat with GitHub repositories
• Using Copilot for change workflows
• Copilot and pull requests
• Copilot and GitHub issues

GitHub Interface over Time

As with all information in this book, screenshots and information about what items are present and where they are located is current at the time of writing. Like Copilot integration in the IDEs, integration in GitHub may evolve over time.

To get started, let’s explore how Copilot is integrated with your repositories in GitHub.

Using Chat with GitHub Repositories

A chat interface like the ones available in IDEs that integrate with Copilot is also available in GitHub. There is a general one at https://github.com/copilot. Also, on the Code page of your repositories, you’ll see a Copilot icon in the top row of controls (as shown in Figure 9-1). Clicking the icon will take you to an immersive (full-screen) Copilot chat interface for that project. We’ll circle back to that in a moment.

Clicking the drop-down arrow next to the Copilot icon brings ...