Overview

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat %} is the AI-powered chat interface for {% data variables.product.prodname_copilot %}. It allows you to interact with AI models to get coding assistance, explanations, and suggestions in a conversational format.

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} can help you with a variety of coding-related tasks, like offering you code suggestions, providing natural language descriptions of a piece of code's functionality and purpose, generating unit tests for your code, and proposing fixes for bugs in your code.

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat %} is available in various environments:

{% data variables.product.github %} (the website)
A range of IDEs such as {% data variables.product.prodname_vscode %}, Xcode, and JetBrains IDEs
{% data variables.product.prodname_mobile %}
{% data variables.copilot.copilot_cli %}

Different environments may have different features and capabilities, but the core functionality remains consistent across platforms. To explore the functionality available in each environment, see the AUTOTITLE how-to guides and the AUTOTITLE.

Limitations

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} is designed to assist with coding tasks, but you remain responsible for reviewing and validating the code it generates. It may not always produce correct or optimal solutions, and it can sometimes generate code that contains security vulnerabilities or other issues. Always test and review the code before using it in production.

Customizing {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} responses

{% data variables.product.prodname_copilot %} in {% data variables.product.github %}, {% data variables.product.prodname_vscode %}, and {% data variables.product.prodname_vs %} can provide chat responses that are tailored to the way your team works, the tools you use, the specifics of your project, or your personal preferences, if you provide it with enough context to do so. Instead of repeating instructions in each prompt, you can create and save instructions for {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} to customize what responses you receive.

There are various ways you can create custom instructions for {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %}. These fall into three main categories:

Personal instructions: You can add personal instructions so that all the chat responses you, as a user, receive are tailored to your preferences.
Repository instructions: You can store instructions files in a repository, so that all prompts asked in the context of the repository automatically include the instructions you've defined.
Organization instructions: If you are an organization owner, you can create a custom instructions file for an organization, so that all prompts asked in the context of any repository owned by the organization automatically include the instructions you've defined.

For more information, see AUTOTITLE, AUTOTITLE and AUTOTITLE.

AI models for {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %}

{% data reusables.copilot.change-the-ai-model %}

Extending {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %}

{% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} can be extended in a variety of ways to enhance its functionality and integrate it with other tools and services. This can include using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to provide context-aware AI assistance, or connecting third-party tools to leverage {% data variables.product.github %}’s AI capabilities.

Extending {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} with MCP

MCP is an open standard that defines how applications share context with large language models (LLMs). MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources and tools, enabling them to work together more effectively.

You can configure MCP servers to provide context to {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} in various IDEs, such as {% data variables.product.prodname_vscode %} and JetBrains IDEs. For {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_dotcom_short %}, the {% data variables.product.github %} MCP server is automatically configured, enabling {% data variables.copilot.copilot_chat_short %} to perform a limited set of tasks, at your request, such as creating branches or merging pull requests. For more information, see AUTOTITLE and AUTOTITLE.

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