Stage 2 · Lesson 1 of 6
Setting up Copilot in VS Code and the CLI
In , to GitHub from the Copilot menu in the , the strip along the bottom of the window. If your account has no Copilot plan, signing in enrols an eligible account in Copilot Free, with a monthly allowance of suggestions and AI credits.
Students can apply through GitHub Education for the Copilot Student plan. Open your project's root folder so chat and agents can search it and load its instructions. For the terminal, install the , for example with npm install -g @github/copilot, and run copilot in the project folder: it first asks whether you trust the files in that directory. Use your own account for personal work and your organisation's account for work code.
Common trapsigning in with the wrong account and using personal settings on company code, or company access on personal projects.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 2 cheat sheet entries come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it
Resources for this stage
Start with
- GitHub repoFreeGitHub Skills: Getting Started with GitHub Copilot
GitHub · Beginner
A free hands-on exercise in a browser Codespace, done in under an hour