GitHub Copilot CLI (Public Preview)

The power of GitHub Copilot, now in your terminal.

GitHub Copilot CLI brings AI-powered coding assistance directly to your command line, enabling you to build, debug, and understand code through natural language conversations. Powered by the same agentic harness as GitHub's Copilot coding agent, it provides intelligent assistance while staying deeply integrated with your GitHub workflow.

See our official documentation for more information.

Table of Contents

• Introduction and Overview
• Getting Started
  • Supported Platforms
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Launching the CLI
  • Authentication
  • Using the CLI
• Security
• Feedback and Participation
• Contributing
• License

🚀 Introduction and Overview

We're bringing the power of GitHub Copilot coding agent directly to your terminal. With GitHub Copilot CLI, you can work locally and synchronously with an AI agent that understands your code and GitHub context.

• Terminal-native development: Work with Copilot coding agent directly in your command line — no context switching required.
• GitHub integration out of the box: Access your repositories, issues, and pull requests using natural language, all authenticated with your existing GitHub account.
• Agentic capabilities: Build, edit, debug, and refactor code with an AI collaborator that can plan and execute complex tasks.
• MCP-powered extensibility: Take advantage of the fact that the coding agent ships with GitHub's MCP server by default and supports custom MCP servers to extend capabilities.
• Full control: Preview every action before execution — nothing happens without your explicit approval.

We're still early in our journey, but with your feedback, we're rapidly iterating to make the GitHub Copilot CLI the best possible companion in your terminal.

📦 Getting Started

Supported Platforms

Platform	Support Level
Linux	Full Support
macOS	Full Support
Windows	Experimental

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22 or higher
• npm v10 or higher
• (On Windows) PowerShell v6 or higher
• An active Copilot subscription. See Copilot plans.

Note: If you have access to GitHub Copilot via your organization or enterprise, you cannot use GitHub Copilot CLI if your organization owner or enterprise administrator has disabled it in the organization or enterprise settings. See Managing policies and features for GitHub Copilot in your organization for more information.

Installation

Install globally with npm:

npm install -g @github/copilot

Launching the CLI

copilot

On first launch, you'll be greeted with our adorable animated banner! If you'd like to see this banner again, launch copilot with the --banner flag.

If you're not currently logged in to GitHub, you'll be prompted to use the /login slash command. Enter this command and follow the on-screen instructions to authenticate.

Authenticate with a Personal Access Token (PAT)

You can also authenticate using a fine-grained PAT with the "Copilot Requests" permission enabled.

1. Visit https://github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new
2. Under "Permissions," click "add permissions" and select "Copilot Requests"
3. Generate your token
4. Add the token to your environment via the environment variable GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN (in order of precedence)

Using the CLI

Launch copilot in a folder that contains code you want to work with.

By default, copilot utilizes Claude Sonnet 4.5. Run the /model slash command to choose from other available models, including Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-5.

Each time you submit a prompt to GitHub Copilot CLI, your monthly quota of premium requests is reduced by one. For information about premium requests, see About premium requests.

For more information about how to use the GitHub Copilot CLI, see our official documentation.

🔐 Security

Token Security

• Never commit tokens to version control. Always use environment variables for authentication tokens.
• Use fine-grained Personal Access Tokens (PATs) with minimal required permissions.
• The GH_TOKEN and GITHUB_TOKEN environment variables are read at runtime and should be stored securely.
• Consider using a credential manager or secret management solution for storing tokens.

Best Practices

• Review all proposed actions before approving them in the CLI.
• Be cautious when running Copilot CLI on sensitive or proprietary codebases.
• Regularly update to the latest version to receive security patches.
• Report security vulnerabilities through GitHub Security rather than public issues.

📢 Feedback and Participation

We're excited to have you join us early in the Copilot CLI journey.

This is an early-stage preview, and we're building quickly. Expect frequent updates—please keep your client up to date for the latest features and fixes!

Your insights are invaluable! You can contribute by:

• Opening an issue: Report bugs or request features using our issue templates
• Joining Discussions: Participate in community conversations
• Submitting feedback: Run /feedback from the CLI to submit a confidential feedback survey

🤝 Contributing

This repository primarily serves as a place for issue tracking and community feedback. For questions or support:

1. Check the official documentation
2. Search existing issues to see if your question has been addressed
3. Open a new issue using the appropriate issue template

📄 License

Copyright (c) GitHub 2025. All rights reserved. Use is subject to GitHub's Pre-release License Terms.