Poser des questions à GitHub Copilot dans votre IDE

Prerequisites

• Access to GitHub Copilot. See "About GitHub Copilot."
• Latest version of Visual Studio Code. See the Visual Studio Code download page.
• The GitHub Copilot extension - Install this from the Visual Studio Marketplace. For more information, see "Set up GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code" in the Microsoft documentation.
• Sign in to GitHub in Visual Studio Code. If you experience authentication issues, see "Troubleshooting issues with GitHub Copilot Chat in IDEs."

If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization, you won't be able to use GitHub Copilot Chat if your organization owner has disabled chat. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."

AI models for Copilot Chat

For those enrolled in the model selection beta for Copilot Chat, the following models are currently available:

• gpt-4o: This is the default Copilot Chat model. It is a versatile, multimodal model that excels in both text and image processing and is designed to provide fast, reliable responses. It also has superior performance in non-English languages.
• o1-preview: This model is focused on advanced reasoning and solving complex problems, in particular in math and science. It responds more slowly than the gpt-4o model. You can make 10 requests to this model per day.
• o1-mini: This is the faster version of the o1-preview model, balancing the use of complex reasoning with the need for faster responses. It is best suited for code generation and small context operations. You can make 50 requests to this model per day.

For more information on these models, see Models in the OpenAI Platform documentation.

Changing your AI model

The model picker in Chat view is a pre-release feature and requires the latest version of VS Code Insiders, as well as the Copilot pre-release extension.

1. If you access Copilot Chat through a GitHub Copilot Business subscription, your organization must enable preview features for Copilot. See "Managing policies for Copilot in your organization."
2. To open the chat view, click the chat icon in the activity bar or press Control+Command+i (Mac) / Ctrl+Alt+i (Windows/Linux).
3. In the bottom right of the chat view, select the CURRENT-MODEL dropdown menu, then click the AI model of your choice.

Submitting prompts

You can ask Copilot Chat to give code suggestions, explain code, generate unit tests, and suggest code fixes.

1. To open the chat view, click the chat icon in the activity bar or press Control+Command+i (Mac) / Ctrl+Alt+i (Windows/Linux).

   

   Tip

   For additional ways to access Copilot Chat, including inline with your code, see Additional ways to access Copilot Chat below.

2. Enter a prompt in the prompt box, or click one of the suggested prompts. For example prompts, see "Example prompts for Copilot Chat."

3. Evaluate Copilot's response, and make a follow up request if needed.

   The response may contain text, code blocks, buttons, images, URIs, and file trees. The response often includes interactive elements. For example, the response may include a menu to insert a code block, or a button to invoke a Visual Studio Code command.

Using keywords in your prompt

You can use special keywords to help Copilot understand your prompt. For examples, see "Example prompts for Copilot Chat."

Chat participants

Use chat participants to scope your prompt to a specific domain. To use a chat participant, type @ in the chat prompt box, followed by a chat participant name. Chat participants include:

• @workspace: Has context about the code in your workspace. Use @workspace when you want Copilot to consider the structure of your project, how different parts of your code interact, or design patterns in your project.
• @vscode: Has context about Visual Studio Code commands and features. Use @vscode when you want help with Visual Studio Code.
• @terminal: Has context about the Visual Studio Code terminal shell and its contents. Use @terminal when you want help creating or debugging terminal commands.

In addition to the built-in Visual Studio Code chat participants, you can also install Copilot Extensions that provide chat participants. You can install these extensions from GitHub Marketplace and from Visual Studio Code Marketplace. For information about extensions from GitHub Marketplace that provide chat participants, see "Using extensions to integrate external tools with Copilot Chat."

To see all available chat participants, type @ in the chat prompt box.

See also Chat participants in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Slash commands

Use slash commands to avoid writing complex prompts for common scenarios. To use a slash command, type / in the chat prompt box, followed by a command. Slash commands include:

• /tests: Generate unit tests for the selected code
• /fix: Propose a fix for problems in the selected code
• /explain: Explain the selected code
• /clear: Start a new chat

To see all available slash commands, type / in the chat prompt box. See also Slash commands in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Chat variables

Use chat variables to include specific context in your prompt. To use a chat variable, type # in the chat prompt box, followed by a chat variable. Chat variables include:

• #file: Include a specific file as context in the chat.
• #git: Include information about the current Git repository.
• #terminalLastCommand: Include the last run command in the active Visual Studio Code terminal.

To see all available chat variables, type # in the chat prompt box. See also Chat variables in the Visual Studio Code documentation.

Using GitHub skills for Copilot

Copilot has a collection of GitHub-specific skills that it can use to answer your questions. To access these skills in Copilot Chat in VS Code, include @github in your question.

When you add @github to a question, Copilot dynamically selects an appropriate skill, based on the content of your question. You can also explicitly ask Copilot Chat to use a particular skill. You can do this in two ways:

• Use natural language to ask Copilot Chat to use a skill. For example, @github Search the web to find the latest GPT4 model from OpenAI.
• To specifically invoke a web search you can include the #web variable in your question. For example, @github #web What is the latest LTS of Node.js?

Currently available skills

You can generate a list of currently available skills by asking Copilot: @github What skills are available?

The skills you can use in Copilot Chat in VS Code include those shown in the table below.

Skill	Description	Enabled by default?	Example question
Code search	Natural language code search in the default branch of the Git repository. This skill is useful when you want to know where or how certain functionality has been implemented in the code. Note: the repository must be indexed - see "Indexing repositories for Copilot Chat."	Yes	@github Where is the logic that controls the user session management, and how does it work?
Commit details	Retrieves a list of commits, or the contents of a specific commit, to provide answers to commit-related questions.	Yes	@github Explain the changes in the code of this commit
Discussion details	Retrieves a specific GitHub discussion. This is useful for quickly getting the gist of the conversation in a discussion.	Yes	@github Summarize this discussion LINK-TO-DISCUSSION
Issue details	Retrieves a specific GitHub issue, including the issue's title, number, author, status, body, linked pull requests, comments, and timestamps.	Yes	@github List issues assigned to me
File details	Retrieves a specific file in the default branch of the Git repository, allowing you to ask questions about the file and the recent changes made to it. This skill is useful when you provide the exact path of a file in the repository.	Yes	@github What logic does user_auth.js encapsulate? @github What is the file history of user_auth.js?
Path search	Retrieves a specific file in the default branch of the Git repository. This skill is useful when you provide the exact path of a file in the repository.	Yes	@github What logic does user_auth.js encapsulate?
Pull request details	Retrieves a specific pull request. This allows you to ask questions about the pull request, including getting a summary of the pull request, its comments, or the code it changes.	Yes	@github List my recent pull requests
GitHub Advanced Security	Retrieves information about security alerts within your organization from GitHub Advanced Security features (code scanning, secret scanning, and Dependabot alerts).	Yes	@github How would I fix this code scanning alert?
Release details	Retrieves the latest, or specified, release. This allows you to find out who created a release, when it happened, and information included in the release notes.	Yes	@github When was the latest release?
Repository details	Retrieves a specific GitHub repository. This is useful for finding out details such as the repository owner and the main language used.	Yes	@github Tell me about PATH-TO-REPOSITORY
Symbol definition	Retrieves the lines of code that define a specific code symbol (function, class, or struct) in the default branch of the Git repository. This skill is useful when you have the exact name of a symbol, and want to understand it.	Yes	@github Write unit tests for the AuthUser method
Support search	Retrieves information from the GitHub Support portal. This skill is useful for asking Copilot Chat about GitHub products and support related questions.	Yes	@github Can I use Copilot knowledge bases with Copilot Individual?
Web search	Searches the web using the Bing search engine. This skill is useful for teaching Copilot about recent events, new developments, trends, technologies, or extremely specific, detailed, or niche subjects (only available with a Copilot Enterprise or Copilot Business subscription).	No (requires admin approval - see "Managing policies and features for Copilot in your enterprise")	@github #web What are some recent articles about SAT tokens securing against vulnerabilities in Node?

Additional ways to access Copilot Chat

In addition to submitting prompts through the chat view, you can submit prompts in other ways:

• Inline: To start an inline chat directly in the editor or integrated terminal, enter Command+i (Mac) / Ctrl+i (Windows/Linux).
• Quick chat: To open the quick chat dropdown, enter Shift+Command+i (Mac) / Shift+Ctrl+i (Windows/Linux)
• Smart actions: To submit prompts via the context menu, right click in your editor, select Copilot in the menu that appears, then select one of the actions. Smart actions can also be accessed via the sparkle icon that sometimes appears when you select a line of code.

See inline chat, quick chat, and chat smart actions in the Visual Studio Code documentation for more details.

Sharing feedback

To indicate whether a response was helpful, use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons that appear next to the response.

To leave feedback about the GitHub Copilot Chat extension, open an issue in the microsoft/vscode-copilot-release repository.

Further reading

• "Prompt engineering for GitHub Copilot"
• Using Copilot Chat in VS Code and Getting started with GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code in the Visual Studio Code documentation
• "Asking GitHub Copilot questions in GitHub.com"
• "Responsible use of GitHub Copilot Chat in your IDE"
• "GitHub Terms for Additional Products and Features"
• GitHub Copilot Trust Center
• GitHub Copilot FAQ