Copilot in the CLI

Use GitHub Copilot directly in your terminal to get intelligent command suggestions, understand complex commands, and accelerate your command-line workflow.

What is GitHub Copilot in the CLI?

GitHub Copilot in the CLI brings AI assistance to your terminal. Instead of searching Stack Overflow or man pages for the right command syntax, you describe what you want to do in plain English and Copilot suggests the exact command. It works as an extension to the GitHub CLI (gh) and supports three categories of commands: general shell commands, git commands, and gh CLI commands.

Copilot in the CLI is especially valuable for:

• Complex command syntax - Commands with many flags, pipes, and options that are hard to remember
• Infrequent operations - Tasks you do rarely enough that you forget the exact syntax each time
• Learning new tools - Discovering how to use commands you have never used before
• Cross-platform differences - Getting the right syntax for your current OS (macOS, Linux, Windows)
• Understanding existing scripts - Explaining what a complex command or pipeline does

Installation and Setup

Copilot in the CLI requires the GitHub CLI (gh) to be installed and authenticated. Here is how to set it up:

Step 1: Install the GitHub CLI

If you do not already have the GitHub CLI installed, install it for your platform:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install gh

# Windows (winget)
winget install --id GitHub.cli

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install gh

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gh

Step 2: Authenticate with GitHub

# Log in to your GitHub account
gh auth login

# Verify authentication
gh auth status

Step 3: Install the Copilot CLI Extension

# Install the Copilot extension
gh extension install github/gh-copilot

# Verify installation
gh copilot --version

gh copilot suggest: Get Command Suggestions

The gh copilot suggest command is your primary tool for getting command-line help. Describe what you want to do in natural language, and Copilot returns the exact command with proper syntax and flags.

# Basic usage
gh copilot suggest "find all JavaScript files modified in the last 7 days"

# Copilot suggests:
# find . -name "*.js" -mtime -7

# More complex example
gh copilot suggest "compress all PNG files in current directory, keeping originals"

# Copilot suggests:
# for f in *.png; do cp "$f" "${f%.png}_original.png" && pngquant --force --output "$f" "$f"; done

When Copilot returns a suggestion, you have three options:

• Copy to clipboard - Copy the command to paste and potentially modify before running
• Execute - Run the command directly (Copilot asks for confirmation first)
• Revise - Refine your request with additional context for a better suggestion

You can also specify the type of command you need by selecting from the interactive prompt: generic shell command, git command, or gh command. This helps Copilot give more targeted suggestions.

Real-World Suggest Examples

# Git operations
gh copilot suggest "undo the last 3 commits but keep the changes"
# git reset --soft HEAD~3

gh copilot suggest "show all branches that have been merged into main"
# git branch --merged main

gh copilot suggest "find which commit introduced a bug in the login function"
# git bisect start && git bisect bad HEAD && git bisect good v1.0

# System administration
gh copilot suggest "show disk usage of current directory sorted by size"
# du -sh * | sort -rh

gh copilot suggest "find processes using port 3000 and kill them"
# lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill -9

gh copilot suggest "create a tar archive excluding node_modules and .git"
# tar czf archive.tar.gz --exclude='node_modules' --exclude='.git' .

# GitHub CLI operations
gh copilot suggest "list all open PRs assigned to me"
# gh pr list --assignee @me --state open

gh copilot suggest "create an issue with labels bug and priority-high"
# gh issue create --label bug --label priority-high

gh copilot explain: Understand Complex Commands

The gh copilot explain command does the reverse of suggest - you provide a command, and Copilot breaks it down into a human-readable explanation. This is invaluable when you encounter unfamiliar commands in scripts, documentation, or colleagues' code.

# Explain a complex git command
gh copilot explain "git log --oneline --graph --all --decorate"

# Copilot explains:
# This command displays the git commit history with:
# --oneline: Each commit on a single line (abbreviated hash + message)
# --graph: ASCII art showing branch/merge structure
# --all: Show commits from all branches, not just current
# --decorate: Show branch names and tags next to commit hashes

# Explain a pipeline you found in a script
gh copilot explain "awk -F: '$3 >= 1000 {print $1}' /etc/passwd"

# Copilot explains:
# This command reads the /etc/passwd file and:
# -F: sets the field delimiter to colon (:)
# $3 >= 1000 filters for lines where the third field (UID) is 1000 or greater
# {print $1} outputs the first field (username) for matching lines
# Result: Lists all regular user accounts (non-system users)

Tips for Writing Effective Queries

The quality of Copilot's suggestions depends heavily on how you phrase your request. Here are proven strategies for getting better results:

• Be specific about the tool - Say "using docker" or "with kubectl" to target a specific CLI tool
• Include constraints - Mention "without deleting originals," "recursively," or "only for .ts files" to narrow the output
• Specify the OS - If a command differs across platforms, mention "on macOS" or "on Ubuntu"
• Describe the desired output - "Show only the file name and size" is better than "list files"
• Use the revise option - If the first suggestion is close but not right, revise with additional details rather than starting over

Integrating Copilot CLI into Your Daily Workflow

To get the most out of Copilot in the CLI, integrate it into your regular terminal habits. Here are practical ways to make it part of your daily workflow:

Shell Aliases for Quick Access

Create short aliases so you can access Copilot commands faster:

# Add to your ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or shell config
alias '??'='gh copilot suggest'
alias '?!'='gh copilot explain'

# Now you can use:
?? "find large files over 100MB in this repo"
?! "tar xzf archive.tar.gz -C /opt --strip-components=1"

Common Workflow Scenarios

Here are everyday situations where Copilot CLI saves significant time:

• Morning standup prep - ?? "show my git commits from yesterday across all branches"
• Debugging deployments - ?? "show kubernetes pods in error state with their logs"
• Database operations - ?? "dump postgres database mydb to a compressed file"
• Log analysis - ?? "count unique IP addresses in nginx access log from today"
• Cleanup tasks - ?? "remove all git branches that have been merged except main and develop"

Combining with Other Tools

Copilot CLI works alongside your existing terminal tools. You can use it to generate commands that feed into scripts, CI pipelines, or Makefiles:

# Use suggest to build a Makefile target
gh copilot suggest "run eslint on all TypeScript files, fix auto-fixable issues, output results as JSON"
# eslint --ext .ts,.tsx --fix --format json .

# Use explain to document existing Makefile commands
gh copilot explain "docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 -t myapp:latest --push ."
# Multi-architecture Docker build targeting AMD64 and ARM64,
# tagged as myapp:latest, automatically pushed to registry

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you run into problems with Copilot in the CLI, here are the most common issues and their solutions:

• "Not authenticated" - Run gh auth login and ensure you are logged in with an account that has Copilot access
• "Extension not found" - Reinstall with gh extension install github/gh-copilot. If updating, use gh extension upgrade gh-copilot
• Slow responses - Copilot CLI requires an internet connection. Check your connectivity and note that complex queries may take a few seconds
• Incorrect OS-specific commands - Explicitly state your operating system in the query (e.g., "on Windows using PowerShell")
• Outdated suggestions - Keep the extension updated with gh extension upgrade gh-copilot to get the latest model improvements