GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant built by GitHub — in collaboration with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google — that integrates into your development environment as an AI pair programmer. It provides real-time ghost-text completions, multi-turn chat, next edit suggestions (NES), autonomous agent mode, GitHub-hosted cloud agents, and the Spark full-stack app builder. Available across VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, Xcode, Vim/Neovim, SSMS, Windows Terminal, and directly on GitHub, Copilot selects from dozens of AI models — including GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and GPT-5.4 — with deep customization through instruction files, prompt files, MCP servers, agent skills, and lifecycle hooks. The key to maximizing its value lies in understanding each interaction surface—inline suggestions, inline chat, edit mode, agent mode, and cloud agent behave differently—and providing precise, contextual guidance to direct the AI toward your intent.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 22 focused tables and 185 indexed concepts, 111 flashcards, 7 practice tests with 201 questions. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
A jump-to index of every table row in this cheat sheet.
An interactive map of every table and concept in this topic.
Table 1: Core Interaction Modes
Copilot is really a family of surfaces that each behave differently, and choosing the right one is the single biggest lever on results. Inline suggestions and next edit suggestions stay out of your way as you type, chat and inline chat field questions and quick edits, while edit mode and agent mode take on multi-file and multi-step work. The cloud agent and Spark go further still, building branches, pull requests, or whole apps. Understanding what each mode can and can't do is the mental model the rest of this sheet builds on.
| Mode | Example | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
Type function parseDate → Copilot completes it | • Real-time ghost text completions appearing as you type • accept with Tab, dismiss with Esc. Available in all IDEs. | ||
Ctrl+Alt+I (Win/Linux) · Cmd+Shift+I (Mac) | Persistent sidebar for multi-turn conversations, explanations, architecture advice, and code generation. | ||
Ctrl+I (Win) · Cmd+I (Mac) in the editor | Contextual overlay directly in code for quick edits, refactors, or explanations without opening the sidebar. | ||
Tab jumps to next predicted edit location | • Proactively predicts where you will edit next across the whole file • navigate with Tab, accept with Tab again. Long-distance NES GA Feb 26, 2026. | ||
"Add JWT authentication to the Express API" | • Autonomous multi-step execution in the local IDE: plans tasks, edits files, runs terminal commands, and self-corrects • GA in VS Code and JetBrains (March 2026). | ||
Add files to working set → describe changes → review diffs | • Multi-file editing interface that proposes diff-based changes across a defined file set • accept or reject per file. One of VS Code's three Chat modes (Ask / Edit / Agent). | ||
Assign a GitHub issue to Copilot | • GitHub-hosted agent that autonomously implements features from issues, creates a branch, opens a pull request, and runs CI checks in an ephemeral Actions environment • Formerly "coding agent." | ||
"Build a kanban board with GitHub login" | • Natural-language full-stack app builder generating React/TypeScript apps with Azure Cosmos DB storage, GitHub auth, and one-click Azure deployment • Copilot Pro+ and Enterprise (Business via admin policy) |