How to Set Up GitHub Copilot

Go to github.com/features/copilot and activate your subscription. GitHub offers several plans:

• Copilot Free — Limited completions and chat messages per month. Good for trying it out.
• Copilot Pro ($10/mo) — Unlimited completions, chat, and access to multiple models. Best for individual developers.
• Copilot Business ($19/user/mo) — Organization-level management, policy controls, and IP indemnity.

Open VS Code and go to the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X). Search for "GitHub Copilot" and install the official extension by GitHub.

You will see two extensions:

• GitHub Copilot — Inline code completions (the ghost text as you type). Install this first.
• GitHub Copilot Chat — Conversational AI assistant in the sidebar. Install this too.

Both extensions are published by GitHub and have millions of installs. Make sure you install the official ones, not third-party alternatives.

After installing, VS Code prompts you to sign in with GitHub. Click Sign In, authorize the extension in your browser, and return to VS Code.

You should see a Copilot icon in the bottom-right status bar. If it shows a green dot, you are connected and ready. If it shows a warning, check that your Copilot subscription is active.

Open any code file and start typing. Copilot shows suggestions as gray "ghost text" inline with your cursor. For example, create a new file called utils.ts and type:

// Function that validates an email address
function validateEmail(

Copilot should complete the function signature, body, and return type. The suggestion appears as dimmed text — it has not been inserted into your code yet.

Master these keyboard shortcuts to work efficiently with Copilot:

• Tab — Accept the full suggestion
• Esc — Reject the suggestion and dismiss it
• Alt+] — Show the next alternative suggestion
• Alt+[ — Show the previous alternative suggestion
• Ctrl+Right Arrow — Accept one word at a time (partial accept)

Partial accept is underrated. When Copilot gets the first part right but the rest wrong, accept word-by-word until you reach the point where you want to diverge, then keep typing manually.

With the Copilot Chat extension installed, click the chat icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Shift+I to open an inline chat right in your editor.

Copilot Chat can:

• Explain selected code in plain English
• Generate tests for a function
• Fix bugs you highlight
• Suggest refactoring approaches
• Answer questions about your project

Use slash commands for common tasks:

/explain  — Explain how the selected code works
/fix      — Suggest a fix for the selected code
/tests    — Generate unit tests
/doc      — Generate documentation comments

Select a block of code and press Ctrl+I to open the inline edit prompt. Type what you want to change and Copilot rewrites the selection in place.

Examples of effective inline edit prompts:

"Add error handling for null values"
"Convert this to an async function"
"Add TypeScript types to all parameters"
"Optimize this loop for performance"
"Add JSDoc comments to this function"

Copilot shows a diff of the proposed changes. Click Accept to apply or Discard to cancel.

Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for "Copilot" to customize behavior:

• Enable/disable per language — Turn off suggestions for Markdown, JSON, or other non-code files if they are distracting.
• Inline suggestions — Toggle the ghost text completions on or off.
• Suggestion count — Control how many alternatives Copilot generates.

You can also configure Copilot in your settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.enable": {
    "*": true,
    "markdown": false,
    "plaintext": false,
    "yaml": false
  },
  "github.copilot.editor.enableAutoCompletions": true
}