GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant developed by GitHub. It’s trained on billions of lines of public code and uses that knowledge to help you write code faster and with less effort - whether you are starting from scratch, working through a complex problem, or simply trying to understand an unfamiliar codebase. 

Unlike a basic autocomplete tool, Copilot understands the broader context of what you are working on and can generate meaningful, multi-line suggestions, explain existing code, write tests, and answer questions in plain English. 

Where can you use it?

Copilot is available across the tools you already use: 

  • Your IDE - VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Neovim, and more via extensions
  • The GitHub website - ask questions and get code suggestions directly in a pull request or repository
  • The command line –

Key features 

Code completion 

As you type, Copilot suggests the next lines of code based on what you have written and the surrounding context. Suggestions appear inline and can be accepted with a single key press. This is particularly useful for boilerplate code, repetitive patterns, and working in unfamiliar languages. 

Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat lets you have a conversation with Copilot in natural language. You can ask it to: 

  • Explain what a block of code does
  • Suggest how to fix a bug
  • Generate a function from a plain-English description
  • Write unit tests for existing code
  • Help you understand an error message

Multi-model support 

Copilot provides access to Large Language Models (LLMs) from a number of providers such as Anthropic (Claude, Opus, Haiku), OpenAI (GPT, GPT-Codex), and Gemini (Flash, Pro). This avoids vendor lock-in. If a new frontier model is released in the future, it’s likely to be supported by Copilot. 

You can view the full list of supported models at t. 

Pull request assistance & code review 

On GitHub.com, Copilot can summarise a pull request, suggest improvements to descriptions, and review the code within a pull request. 

Agentic workflows

You can delegate tasks to GitHub Copilot from Jira, GitHub issues, VS Code, and other tools. These run in the background, iterating until the task is complete. Once complete, you can review the output and ask Copilot to make further changes if required. 

Other

For a complete list of features, see . 

Why use it?

  • Write code faster – Copilot handles routine and repetitive code so you can focus on the harder problems.
  • Learn as you go – Copilot’s suggestions and explanations make it easier to pick up new languages and frameworks.
  • Reduce context switching – Ask questions and get answers without leaving your editor or switching to a search engine.
  • Catch mistakes earlier – Copilot can flag potential issues and suggest fixes as part of your normal workflow. 

Getting access 

Access to GitHub Copilot at Imperial depends on whether you are a student or a member of staff. . 

Further reading 

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Last updated: 3 June 2026