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Justin's Digital Garden

Microsoft GitHub Copilot

Source: My personal notes from Microsoft training sessions in 2025, 2026

Why use GitHub Copilot?

Section titled “Why use GitHub Copilot?”

Use case: Doing computer programming with an assistant.

Using AI to improve productivity with code summaries, analysis, generation, and other methods.

Example Use Cases

Section titled “Example Use Cases”

Create documentation: Write an architecture markdown file describing the project and its code.

Improve code: Improve the user interface of the application to modernize the interface.

Testing: Write a test case

Troubleshooting: Analyze this code and error for solution options.

Inquiry: Ask questions on code, documentation

Features

Section titled “Features”
  • Selection of different models depending on purpose and trying different responses
  • Code completion
  • Chat - discussions with agent
    • Create code, make changes
    • Assess application, tests/looks at it, do code, test, and submit pull request for review
    • Ask to execute tasks, assign tasks to Copilot in GitHub and it can do pull requests:
    • Ask, edit, agent task execution, plan
  • Provide system prompt in instructions for AI to always follow

Technical Features

Section titled “Technical Features”

Instructions for Using Microsoft GitHub Copilot

Section titled “Instructions for Using Microsoft GitHub Copilot”

Source: GitHub Copilot documentation, What is GitHub Copilot? - GitHub Enterprise Cloud Docs

Github (Enterprise) Copilot user settings and other instructions: GitHub Copilot Settings

For GitHub Enterprise, when prompted to login, choose GitHub Enterprise login.

  • Try accessing it, for example inside Visual Studio / Visual Studio Code or tool of your choice.
  • If using Visual Studio, it can look like a different account than the account used by Visual Studio.

For example, using VS Code, install VS Code and the GitHub Copilot extension, then use sign into GitHub account.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Section titled “Model Context Protocol (MCP)”

Can interact with external resources to do tasks for you and needs to be secured using MCP.

Examples: interact with JIRA tickets, work on Azure resources

Models

Section titled “Models”

Multiple models are available for Copilot users. Example: Gemini, OpenAI models like GPT, Anthropic. Pricing can vary on better models and request types.

To see models context size and capabilities, see AI model comparison - GitHub Copilot Docs or in VS Code “Manage Models” function with models.

Demonstration of Use Case of Building an Application

Section titled “Demonstration of Use Case of Building an Application”

Use principles from AI Prompts - AI Prompts to give instructions to Copilot.

Examples on an existing repository with a Calculator

Section titled “Examples on an existing repository with a Calculator”

Create architecture documentation and diagrams in mermaid for this repository.

The web app looks outdated. Modernize the app and make it stylish by adding different themes. Add more functionality to the app like scientific calculator functions.

Add a custom instructions file in repository to set up themes and developer preferences and standards.

Workspace Index

Section titled “Workspace Index”

Main article: GitHub Copilot Workspace Index and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) - GitHub Copilot Workspace Index and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

GitHub Copilot can index files in a workspace for use with prompts, search, and for use as context.

See Also

Section titled “See Also”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”