GitHub Copilot Extensions provide an integration point to expand the functionality of GitHub Copilot Chat, allowing developers to introduce external tools, services, and custom behaviors into the chat experience.
You can use Copilot Extensions to customize the capabilities of Copilot in multiple ways. For example, you can target the needs of a specific type of user, such as an Arm software developer, by querying specific documentation or prioritizing responses related to that specific developer’s environment. Copilot Extensions also benefit users by facilitating the integration of additional LLMs, and offering different APIs and AI tools, which broadens the reach of the resources. In short, a Copilot Extension allows you to build a more curated experience.
Think about what you want to offer, or build for yourself, that is beyond or better than what Copilot can already do. If you have ideas, you can try them using a Copilot Extension.
Extensions can be private, public, or shared in the GitHub Marketplace.
This Learning Path is a “hello world” tutorial for a simple extension in Python. It explains how to create a private extension by running Python on a Linux computer, using ngrok to expose the endpoint, and creating a GitHub App to configure the extension in your GitHub account. After this, you can invoke your private extension from GitHub Chat.
Before building an extension, make sure Copilot is configured and working in your GitHub account.
Refer to the Quickstart for GitHub Copilot to get started.
You can use GitHub Copilot Free at no cost, subject to a usage allowance.
You can use extensions on any platform where you can use Copilot chat. This includes the GitHub website, various IDEs, and the command line.
Extensions are invoked using @ followed by the name of the extension.
For example, you can invoke the
Arm extension for GitHub Copilot
using @arm in the chat.
You can install the Arm extension from the GitHub Marketplace and practice using @arm to invoke it. For information on how to use it, see the
Arm for GitHub Copilot repository
.
Continue to learn how to create your own extension using Python.