Geoff Mazeroff

Software Engineering

You need to try the GitHub Copilot CLI right now

This was an interesting demo of the Copilot CLI, given I typically use VS Code. It seems like everything done in this demo via the CLI can be done in the GUI as well. Here are some tips:

• Author’s preference: Run within VS Code (terminal in editor). This is because when it gives you links to files, you just click on them to open in VS Code.
• copilot starts the tool.
• /allow-all or /yolo to get the full agentic experience (no prompts about tool uses)
• copilot --resume to resume a sessions (or --continue) to resume the last session
• If you don’t like all the typing in the shell, you can make aliases.
• /model to select a model and a reasoning level
• Ctrl+L = clear. Ctrl+A = home. Ctrl+E = end. To see more type ?.
• /agent to list or create agents.
• /mcp to list MCP servers.
• If you don’t want to type, use voice to text on your computer.
• Shift+Tab = change mode (plan, autopilot)
• /tasks to see what background tasks are doing
• In VS Code, you can use the Copilot pane to see the chat sessions kicked off by the CLI.
• Another benefit is that the CLI can use the editor’s tools (e.g., diagnostics) via LSP (Language Server Protocol).
• Keep in mind that most of the demo was done with the help of the author’s agent: https://burkeholland.github.io/anvil.