GitHub presents a detailed video guide by their own team on mastering GitHub Copilot, showing developers how to leverage Copilot’s features in Visual Studio Code for building secure, production-quality software.

How to Use GitHub Copilot: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

Created by GitHub, this video serves as a complete starting point for anyone new to GitHub Copilot, combining the entire beginner series into a single resource. The guide walks viewers through setup, best practices, and practical development challenges using Copilot within Visual Studio Code.

Video Chapters Overview

  • Getting Started with GitHub Copilot: Initial setup, configuration, and enabling Copilot in Visual Studio Code.
  • Prompt Engineering Essentials: Techniques for crafting effective prompts to achieve better AI-generated code and explanations.
  • Securing Your Code with GitHub Copilot: Best practices for using Copilot responsibly, including managing secrets and understanding AI limitations in code security.
  • GitHub Copilot 101: Essential Features: A tour of Copilot’s key functionalities, from code completion to code generation and documentation assistance.
  • Building a REST API with GitHub Copilot: Step-by-step walkthrough of using Copilot to scaffold and implement an API, highlighting the interplay between manual instructions and AI-driven suggestions.
  • Building a React App with GitHub Copilot: Project-based learning, showing how Copilot assists with UI components and logic in React, improving productivity and code quality.
  • Test-Driven Development: Incorporating TDD practices in workflow with Copilot-generated test scaffolding and assertions.
  • Code Review & Refactoring: Leveraging Copilot to support code review processes, suggest improvements, and refactor for maintainability.

Key Takeaways

  • Copilot Integration: How to seamlessly integrate Copilot into Visual Studio Code for day-to-day use.
  • Prompt Crafting: Get the most relevant code completions by learning how to communicate effectively with large language models.
  • Security Awareness: Recognize the strengths and limitations of Copilot for code security, with practical do’s and don’ts.
  • Production Projects: Guided examples including REST API and React app development, demonstrating Copilot’s impact on real projects.
  • Dev Workflows: Adopt TDD, code review, and refactoring best practices using Copilot’s AI capabilities.

Additional Resources

By following this video guide, developers can start using GitHub Copilot with confidence, boost productivity, write more secure code, and learn how AI can support modern software development.