Visual Studio Code's Copilot Chat architecture enables extension authors to integrate with the GitHub Copilot Chat experience. A chat extension is a VS Code extension that uses the Chat extension API by contributing a Chat participant. Chat participants are domain experts that can answer user queries within a specific domain.
The Language Model API enables you to use the Language Model and integrate AI-powered features and natural language processing in your Visual Studio Code extension.
When an extension uses the Chat or the Language Model API, we call it a GitHub Copilot Extension, since GitHub Copilot is the provider of the Chat and the Language Model experience.
This GitHub Copilot Extension sample shows:
- How to contribute a chat participant to the GitHub Copilot Chat view.
- How to return static responses to user queries.
- How to use the Language Model API to request access to the Language Model (gpt-4o, gpt-3.5-turbo, gpt-4).
Related documentation for the demo this is based on can be found here:
- https://code.visualstudio.com/api/extension-guides/chat
- https://code.visualstudio.com/api/extension-guides/language-model
You can install this as an extension in VSCode from the marketplace - StuartEggerton.dadstaxi-chat-sample
@dadstaxi /help- shows the help message@dadstaxi /book pickup dog 3PM Wednesday- book a taxi@dadstaxi /bookings- show the bookings@dadstaxi can you book a cab- this will refuse to book a cab but will demo calling the language model to get a random dad joke
If you install this from the marketplace you can ignore this section. This is the inner loop for how you would develop an extension like this...
- Run
npm installin terminal to install dependencies - Run the
Run Extensiontarget in the Debug View. This will:- Start a task
npm: watchto compile the code - Run the extension in a new VS Code window
- You will see the @dadstaxi chat participant show in the GitHub Copilot Chat view
- Start a task
This extension does not store the bookings - these are static and only exist in memory to generate a response. The language model is not called for any real data, only for generating samples.
If you want to build your own privacy focused extension, you should consider the following:
- github.com/Copilot-Extensions - to build extensions that work with Copilot supported IDE and in web browsers
- Copilot Trust Center - to learn more about how GitHub Copilot keeps your code secure and private