Copilot Enterprise - Feedback

[arfon]

• Who: Customers using Copilot Enterprise.
• What: We want to hear from you! Provide feedback on the Copilot Enterprise in this Discussion

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As of 27th February 2024, GitHub Copilot Enterprise is now generally available 🚀. Read more about Copilot Enterprise on our recent blog post.

This thread is just for product feedback.

We are responding to general Questions & Answers related to Copilot Enterprise in another discussion: Copilot Enterprise Q & A

[mattbrandman]

Would love to be able to bulk index repositories as it seems to hang while indexing is happening. It is also unclear if a chat works without indexing the repo first as well.

[arfon]

Thanks for the feedback @mattbrandman. Could you say more about what is 'hanging' when indexing?

It is also unclear if a chat works without indexing the repo first as well.

Chat will still work, it's just the scenarios that connect natural language questions like 'where does authentication happen' to underlying code won't work.

[arfon]

/ cc @colinwm

[syossan27]

When I type Japanese in Copilot chat, the message is sent when I press the enter key after conversion.
I am having trouble typing sentences in Japanese if this is not corrected.
Please check the attached video.

feedback.mov

[arfon]

Thanks @syossan27 – we've noticed this issue too and are working on a fix.

[arfon]

This should be fixed now, would love to hear back if you're still facing issues?

[Harithavm-dev]

good

[qqqq-collab]

[

[ChrisAveniq]

I have noticed two issues:

• When using chat in our indexed repository, it does not seem to know about directories that are clearly there. It says it does not exist.
  It says: I'm sorry, but I couldn't find any content in the "ingress" folder in the "xxx/reponame" repository. It's possible that the folder doesn't exist, is empty, or is not publicly accessible. Please verify the folder name and its accessibility.

But the repo has a folder named "ingress" in the root. The repo is internal, however.

• and this is also weird:
  

[arfon]

Got it. Thanks. And just confirming that the repository is showing up as indexed when you open up a chat session?

[ChrisAveniq]

@arfon Yes: Indexed for improved understanding and accuracy.

[OneCyrus]

@arfon it seems to be really hard to get a response at all which is related to the index.

[arfon]

I think you've identified a good gap in Copilot's capabilities here. Currently Copilot knows how to do the following four things:

• show-symbol-definition: To retrieve the lines of code that define a code symbol from a specified repository's checked in git files. This function is used when we have an exact symbol name to query with.
• pathsearch: To retrieve a file from a repository's git checked in files that matches the filename or file path provided. This function is used when the exact filename or file path to a file checked in to the repository is provided.
• bing-search: To search the web using the Bing search engine. This function is used when the user's query pertains to recent events, information that is frequently updated, new developments, trends, technologies, or is extremely specific or detailed.
  codesearch: To search code within a specified repository's git checked in files. This function is used when a user asks questions related to the repository's code, such as where or how certain functionality has been implemented.

(you can ask Copilot about this too)

What you're asking Copilot to do here is related to the various code search scenarios, but isn't quite right (as you say, you want a count/list from the index).

It's certainly possible to teach Copilot how to do this kind of thing and we'll put it on our backlog for sure. Can you say more about what you're wanting from Copilot in this kind of scenario? Is it a better understanding of what the 'shape' of a repository is, or were you looking for particular content?

[kokuyouwind]

It's certainly possible to teach Copilot how to do this kind of thing and we'll put it on our backlog for sure. Can you say more about what you're wanting from Copilot in this kind of scenario? Is it a better understanding of what the 'shape' of a repository is, or were you looking for particular content?

In my case, I encountered both.

The former use is a mono-repo asking for a description under a specific directory or asking for a use under a specific directory.
For example, the question "What is under the server directory?" will receive the answer "I'm sorry, but I couldn't find any information about a 'server' directory in the 'xxx' repository."
If I changed the question to "What framework is used under the server directory?", I could get answers such as Rails or Next.js. However, what I wanted with the original question was something a bit more abstract, such as "This is a client SPA for an API in the server directory."

The latter is a case where you want to find code under a specific directory or get the diff of multiple files that are close in usage.
For example, the questions "Is there a Google client under the server/app/gateways directory?" or "What are the differences in specifications for each client under the server/app/gateways directory?" will receive the answer "I'm sorry, but I couldn't find specific files under the server/app/ gateways directory in the xxx repository."

[ChrisAveniq]

I think what is missing is, similar to other copilots and chats, a stop button to stop a response. Sometimes it goes on for quite a long time and I already know I need to change my prompt.

[arfon]

Great suggestion, I agree this is a missing feature. We've added this to the backlog ✅

[PaulDMendoza]

For the browser chat tool:

My code base is 99% of C# but when I asked it to generate a unit text example it generated it in python. I think I need to provide some base level instructions to all the chats with some basic information. For example, I have created a custom Chat in ChatGPT that has the following instruction.

"My code base uses C# and we use Postgresql for our database server. We use Entity Framework for our simple data access. We use dependency injection. To get a connection to the database use ITeamDBConnection and to get an EntityFramework context use ITeamDBContextFactory and then call GetAsync()..."

This would really help the chat tool to improve the initial responses.

[arfon]

Hi @PaulDMendoza – this is great feedback, thank you.

My code base is 99% of C# but when I asked it to generate a unit text example it generated it in python. I think I need to provide some base level instructions to all the chats with some basic information. For example, I have created a custom Chat in ChatGPT that has the following instruction.

Yeah, this is a great idea, and we already do something similar with Copilot, but crucially we don't currently tell Copilot what programming languages are used in a repository. Doing this seems like a 'no-brainer' and I'll put this on the backlog!

[tristanbes]

There's few question I would like to have answers (right now the AI says it can't help):

Team / developpers related

• who are the top contributors of the past XX days ?
• what are the team working on right now (expecting results of a list of recent active PR with a short summary)
• what PR should require my attention ?

Code / Data / Analysis

• what are the most recurring fixes ?
• find the most updated file in the project
• how many unit tests there is in the project ?
• how many cypress scenarios we have ?
• can you give the % of failed github actions for the past 10 days ?

Lack of exhaustivity

• Find all events we're sending to our CDP -> while having 100+ events, the AI only gave 5 events (and said it wasn't exhaustive)

Screenshot

[timrogers]

Thanks for sharing these examples @tristanbes! They are super useful.

To be completely transparent, these are not the kinds of questions that Copilot Chat is able to answer right now - but we are working to fill these gaps and make Copilot better. Your examples are really valuable to help us prioritise.

We'll also look at how we can help you and other developers to understand what Copilot is good at and what it isn't good at - we don't do that very well right now.

[ghost]

I have transitioned to the enterprise version so that the Copilot chat will understand the context of the entire project. Thus, I won't need to explain that this file does X and that file does Y, or that I need to paste the code for it to understand which file does what. I had assumed that with the enterprise version, it would scan the repositories, and when I talk about a specific file, it would understand what I am referring to. However, it does not. I have configured the policies and created a knowledge base, but it did not change anything.

Bottom line:
I want the copilot to scan the entire repository be aware of all the files and the code inside and answer the questions in the context of the entire project.
here is example
I had issues with CSS that share the same name inside the project I want the copilot be aware of it and let me know that I need to change the names or when it recommend code or css to write it in the context of a project and not just as an example

[timrogers]

Hi Eran! I'm sorry to hear that you're having a frustrating experience. A couple of questions:

1. Are you using Copilot Chat on GitHub.com, or in your IDE? If so, which IDE are you using?
2. Can you share some examples of the kinds of questions you're asking? If you're not comfortable sharing here, feel free to email me at the @github.com email on my profile.

[emartin-monterey]

We are testing out Git Hub Enterprise & Copilot Enterprise for some of the same reasons and have similar questions. Local Visual Studio Pro Copilot Enterprise subscription Chat & Completion extensions do not seem to be aware if the indexed repos. Is there some other aspect to configure, etc. where this works locally?

For example, a Copilot Web chat prompt of "Use the Collector repo to find examples of Jobs and then create a Job that reads all the files in a given directory" provides a reasonable response of "..., class ReadDirectoryFilesJob : AbstractJob ..." with appropriate use of the AbstractJob class including the class method entry point which is the kind of functionality we are looking for.

On the other hand, locally the Visual Studio Pro Copilot Enterprise subscription chat for the same prompt returns "I'm sorry for the confusion, but as an AI, I don't have the ability to access or search through repositories, including the Collector repo". In addition, Copilot Enterprise subscription Completions VS Pro extension can not comprehend this directive without a number of related repo files open locally.

Note that we have not added any information to the repo's knowledge base. I will also note that the local Copilot extension does not have the ability to use the Bing search tool.

[arfon]

Thanks for the detailed feedback @emartin-monterey. It's possible that the (GitHub) Copilot Extension in Visual Studio Pro needs some configuration/setup here. I'm checking with the team to find out what might be the issue.

[emartin-monterey]

I posed this same question to GitHub Enterprise support and their response was:

"I was just informed by engineering that this feature is not available yet outside of GitHub.com. They are working to have this feature available for Visual Studio soon. I recommend you keep an eye on the GitHub Blog and our social media feeds for the latest announcements about new features and fixes.
You can also check out our Public roadmap to see what we're currently working on."

Looking at the public roadmap linked and even the backlog, Copilot is not mentioned and nothing related seems to be slotted for this year so far, which tells me this capability is not really on the radar. Paying $39 a user for the Copilot "chat with your code" feature, on top of the regular GitHub Enterprise subscription fee, is certainly less of a value-add than what we envisioned when upgrading to the Enterprise subscription.

[ghost]

Hey Tim,

I'm absolutely enamored with GitHub Copilot Chat. It writes nearly all of my code and consistently helps me debug and brainstorm new ideas. It's truly the most powerful tool I've ever used; I love it.

The only issue is that you always have to paste the code into it so it can grasp the context of your question. Even if I open the file and it appears in the editor, it seems to "read" it as if the chat is open on the left and the code is open on the right, and it still doesn't fully understand the context of the question.

I was hoping that the enterprise edition would grant the tool access to the entire repository, eliminating the need to copy the code for the initial question on a specific file. Unfortunately, it appears that for now, it's limited. I can inquire about a specific file if I provide the path, but this isn't conducive to seamless back-and-forth conversations.

I want to be able to chat with it and have it precisely understand what I'm talking about in the context of the repository.
I hope it helps.
Eran

[arfon]

I was hoping that the enterprise edition would grant the tool access to the entire repository, eliminating the need to copy the code for the initial question on a specific file. Unfortunately, it appears that for now, it's limited. I can inquire about a specific file if I provide the path, but this isn't conducive to seamless back-and-forth conversations.

@erangross – are you specifically looking for Copilot to have this additional 'repository-wide context' in the IDE chat sessions?

[stvnwrgs]

@arfon This would be huge! Biggest missing feature IMO!

[ghost]

From: Arfon Smith ***@***.***> Sent: Friday, March 1, 2024 2:03 PM To: community/community‏ ***@***.***> Cc: Eran Gross‏ ***@***.***>; Mention‏ ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [community/community] Copilot Enterprise - Feedback (Discussion #110314) I was hoping that the enterprise edition would grant the tool access to the entire repository, eliminating the need to copy the code for the initial question on a specific file. Unfortunately, it appears that for now, it's limited. I can inquire about a specific file if I provide the path, but this isn't conducive to seamless back-and-forth conversations. @erangross<https://github.com/erangross> – are you specifically looking for Copilot to have this additional 'repository-wide context' in the IDE chat sessions? Exactly. 'repository-wide context' in the IDE chat sessions I could not phrase it better myself. Eran — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#110314 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMRPK2CQVSL5EJXBFXYAISLYWBU5ZAVCNFSM6AAAAABD4MYPTKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DMNBSGM2DS>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.******@***.***>>

[arfon]

@erangross – are you familiar with the @workspace command in VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_84#_workspace

[neo-cheung]

The knowledge base can support indexing issues, wikis, discussions, and PRs. It would be nice, since my organization uses issues and discussions for design documents and specifications.

[arfon]

Great suggestions, thanks @neo-cheung .

[YusukeKokubo]

I would be very happy for my organization if this is supported 🙏

[nategoethel]

Thirding this. We have a lot of knowledge in our repo's wiki, which Copilot can't seem to access when you assign it an issue directly in Github, nor can it initialize and pull the wiki as a submodule due to access limitations.

[kokuyouwind]

I would like to have the option to specify the output language when generating the Pull Request Summary.
In Copilot Chat, inquiries in Japanese are answered in Japanese, but the Pull Request Summary is always generated in English, so a separate translation is required.

[arfon]

Great suggestion, thanks @kokuyouwind. Out of interest, would this be a preference for you (i.e., is it only you that speaks Japanese, or your team, or your whole organization)?

[kokuyouwind]

@arfon
The whole organization. Since I am Japanese working for a Japanese company and almost all of my colleagues are Japanese, I always write the Description of Pull Requests in my organization in Japanese.

[arfon]

Got it. Thanks @kokuyouwind - that makes a lot of sense!

[seanemmer]

Nice work! Very excited about this.

It appears that the VSCode version of Copilot Chat does not have access to the index that is generated for the github.com Copilot chat.

I have attempted to use the @workspace directive but don't get the same results (it doesn't generate references to the correct files).

[seanemmer]

Thanks for the quick reply and additional info!

I've done some further testing and both github.com and VSCode IDE @workspace seem to be behaving similarly.

The issue is they both have trouble referencing my schema.prisma file. They seem to prefer to referencing .ts files.

e.g. the prompt @workspace what fields are in the account model in schema.prisma

only returns references to .ts files, not schema.prisma. This is for both versions of Copilot.

[timrogers]

@seanemmer That's interesting! My guess is that this is something to do with the file being a .prisma file. On Copilot Chat on GitHub.com, can you confirm what question you're asking? Do you get any little indicators like this in the response, or nothing?

[seanemmer]

Even more interesting. Here's a sample prompt:

But the reference is not to our schema.prisma, it's to the schema.prisma in a public repo:

https://github.com/Airbotics/uptane-server/blob/3ffe8ffb58e4ea19ed0bb724a07ea798dc0348ff/src/prisma/schema.prisma#L164-L278

[timrogers]

Even stranger! Just to confirm, did you get that answer without navigating to that public repo?

Did you take that screenshot immediately after getting the answer, or was there any kind of page refresh in between?

It is possible that Copilot could run a search including files outside of your repository - and that search could include public repositories - but I'm surprised not to see an indicator showing the search that was run, like in my screenshot above.

[seanemmer]

No page refresh, I'd never been to that repo.

It's no longer replicating today. Now both github.com and vscode correctly references my schema.prisma file! Not sure if you changed anything on your end.

Github.com correctly refers to all of the fields on the Account model. Vscode still fails in answering the question despite having a reference to schema.prisma:

The Account model in your schema.prisma file is not directly provided in the excerpts you've shared. However, there are references to an Account model in the relations of other models. For example, in the[redacted] model, there's a relation to Account:

This suggests that there is an Account model in your schema, but without the direct excerpt of the Account model, I can't provide the exact fields in it.

[PaulDMendoza]

Are there release notes somewhere that we can see what has been updated with Copilot Enterprise Chat or somewhere we can track the improvements?

[timrogers]

Great question! We'll update the GitHub Changelog (which shows on your GitHub homepage) when we ship new improvements to Copilot 😊

[yanskun]

Depending on the GitHub color theme, the code is buried in the code block background color, so you can't see anything, which is very disappointing.

Can I change the color of codeblock?

[arfon]

Thanks for reporting this @yanskun - I've filed a bug with the team to look into this!

[arfon]

Hi @yanskun – we've been trying to replicated this issue but have so far failed. Can you share with me a little more detail:

• What browser are you using?
• Do you have an extensions enabled? If so, do you still see this issue with them disabled?

[yanskun]

@arfon
Thank you
When I was turning on/off various extensions, I realized that they were not compatible with Sourcegraph..!

[arfon]

Ah, so just to confirm, disabling the Sourcegraph extension fixed the issue for you?

[yanskun]

@arfon
Sorry,
Yes, I disabled it and it was resolved.

[ouweiya]

Is it currently not supported to use the knowledge base in VSCode? I saw in the YouTube video demonstration that the @docs directive is supported?

https://youtu.be/AAT4zCfzsHI?t=2287

[arfon]

Hi @ouweiya – I'm afraid this isn't shipped just yet, but it is being actively worked!

[BenjaminBenetti]

Just got Copilot Enterprise. Man, indexed repos and chatting on GitHub.com is amazing! However, like other's have mentioned here, I'm disappointed that the same level of chat intelligence is not available from the integrated vscode chat even when using the @github skill (can't access private repos).

I also installed the @docker extension which provides some nice to haves on GitHub.com chat however, again, it does not function in the IDE, yielding the message, "The Docker for GitHub Copilot extension does not have a reference to a repository."

Amazing product, just wanted to add a +1 to the IDE integration band wagon.

[eshwer]

Hey @BenjaminBenetti!
Regarding:
(1) Can't access private repo - if your org is protected by SAML/SSO, we recently had a regression in @github but we have now fixed it! I'd recommend re-authenticated and trying again. Let me know if it still isn't working?

(2) Docker not having access to the repository - if you have installed the extension on your personal account and are trying to have it read data from an organization, you will need to ask your org admin to install the extension instead

[BenjaminBenetti]

Hey, @eshwer thanks for the lighting fast response!

(1)
You are totally right! we are an SSO organization.
I tried signing out of my GitHub account in visual studio code, not only for copilot chat, but completely. It doesn't seem to have an effect. Copilot still has no idea what repo I'm talking about, despite having it open in vscode.

Providing the exact same prompt to copilot on GitHub.com produces an astounding result, with tech summary, important README files, ect.

(2)
I have installed the docker extension organization wide. I'm pretty sure it's suffering from the issue in (1).

While writing this and testing chat I have had a bit of a break through. If I paste in the url of the repo, copilot in vscode can provide much the same response as on GitHub.com! So maybe the issue is just a missing feature to automatically pull the current repository in to the chat context?

[eshwer]

This sounds like a bug! It should "just work" without you manually inputting it. I'll look into this!

[balboFK]

Hey @eshwer how are you? Did we have any upgrades on the policies again? I am encountering this issue again and its quite annoying to deal with. It happens for once and a while, now mostly on Github.com, on VSCode it is happening less, but still sometimes occurs. I tried re-authenticating and so on, but no luck unfortunately.

[eshwer]

Hi, we've escalated this issue internally and are working as fast as possible to get this resolved! cc @khenckel

[balboFK]

Hi @eshwer! I see, I'll wait for it.
The thing is that this problem is very critical sometimes, like for me now, I have an use case where I cant really see it being asked on the VSCode chat, it makes more sense to be asked on Github.com, but I am still unable to use it since last week. Right now i just tried it again and got this:

It worked nice since the last time we talked about it, so it might be some regression that happened in this meantime that makes me unable to use the product again.
So any help on this would be great!
Thank you!

[eshwer]

Thanks for providing the example! Every example we can collect is really helpful for our escalation. I'm hoping we can get this fixed for you soon!! 🙏

[trandall2]

Encountering similar issues to others with the violates GitHub's content policies. First time trying out the feature, so I don't have any experience with it working

[khenckel]

If your seat was granted through a business or enterprise, could they try removing & re-adding you to their license plan?

[bigmethos]

It's a business subscription under the JPlug enterprise for the specific individual, so not org wide. I did find it a little confusing at first that I had to enable it at the enterprise level then at the org level, but I think I have that part worked out. Once I had the permission set properly at the org level I did try removing my seat and re-adding it, then I logged out and back in to make sure I got the permissions on my token but it still gives me those errors.

[khenckel]

@bigmethos it looks like the issue is that JPlug-io does not have a credit card. Would it be possible to reach out to your account admin to verify?

[bigmethos]

We have PayPal set up, a credit coupon, and we are setup for azure billing. Yet we keep getting billing errors, even though we have credits. I have a ticket open with hem to discover why we keep getting billing problems too, it just seems strange with he error that we received they don't seem related.

[bigmethos]

We updated with a credit card. Same problem. I also tried upgrading to Enterprise copilot from the business subscription and it didn't seem to change anything. Now it seems we are stuck on the Enterprise, so that's another problem.

[RealEstateSaga]

How are you? I would LOVE to use co-pilot, can I? I am not an experienced programmer, so I do use my ChatGPT often. I just understand enough to have some fun, hopefully make some things people enjoy, exchange ideas :)I think what happened was during our house keeping we delete the ORG? Can you see my backend, do you want to login with my username and pass? I sent a few things over to Tinloof, and he actually replied about Co-Pilot, and I told him I THINK I have that haha Does it correct items live? Copy and pasting GPT does get old, and as I am sure you know there are a few glitches haha On Nov 15, 2024, at 6:32 PM, Kelly Henckel ***@***.***> wrote: This is very bizarre, it's showing in our system that you do not have a Copilot license — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#110314 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A4VZE3PYSFBBD3MOYRHQPNL2A2HB7AVCNFSM6AAAAABD4MYPTKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCMRXGUYDAMA>. You are receiving this because you commented.

[yearmfew]

I am defining a context in the prompt but it does not stay. I need to add the context for each prompt in a chat. It would be better if we add context for the whole chat.

[khenckel]

@yearmfew try out Copilot Spaces! They are a new feature which allow you to do exactly that: github.com/copilot/spaces.

[g-mantra]

Found a very frustrating issue with copilot enterprise when used with VSCode. This is not an issue when using the same models via Windsurf, it only affects VSCode + copilot enterprise in agent mode.

The agent creates new empty files, and then adds content to these files but doesn't save them and just keeps them in its own working copy thing or whatever it's using for this. It then tries to compile, and thinks all the files are empty (they are). This also affects whenever it writes tests, or really whenever it tries to do anything that reads files it thinks it has written to.

It then proceeds to overwrite these files using cat straight to the disk (to fix the issue caused by the "files" being "empty"), except this time it usually gets the context totally wrong, and has two copies of the same file in context (or something weird like that), long story short it ends in disaster every time and I just have to reset the working tree after getting a bunch of errors in VScode asking me if I want to overwrite each file (because there's now a "newer version").

I'll try going back to working with terminal commands disabled so that everything has to be manually approved, but its frustrating that windsurf doesn't suffer from this problem and provides such a better experience, and I've had to go backwards and become less efficient with copilot enterprise.

[Kripton2005]

I have a suggestion. Whenever Copilot creates a file but the user ultimately doesn't want to keep it, "undoing" the changes leaves the user with a blank file that they have to delete manually. Could you make it so that the file gets deleted automatically. Big ups if you do!

[ajayrathiif]

Suggestion for 2 issues:

Issue 1: Skipped Issue Numbers in Workflow Runs
When I create issues on GitHub and assign them to Copilot, it automatically starts fixing the issues and assigns corresponding numbers under the Actions tab. However, I've noticed that Copilot skips issue numbers (e.g., it jumps from issue #5 to #7).
Please see the attached screenshot for reference.

Suggestion: Ensure consistent issue numbering in workflow runs or provide clarity on why some numbers are skipped (e.g., internal retries, failed attempts not shown, etc.).

Issue 2: "Ready for Review" Button Appears Too Early
When Copilot creates a draft pull request and begins working on the fix, the "Ready for review" button becomes available immediately—even though Copilot is still actively working on the task.

Suggestion: The "Ready for review" button should remain disabled while Copilot is processing the fix and only become enabled once the task is complete. This would avoid confusion and help reviewers know when the work is actually ready for feedback.

[stranik38]

[rajbos]

The issue number is correctly jumping, as you create the issue, and then coding agent creates a PR.

Since issues and PRs live in the same data storage, their numbers are sequential.

So you create issue #5, coding agent creates PR #6, and you create issue #7, and so on.

[invixuscom-cmyk]

• Who: Customers using Copilot Enterprise.
• What: We want to hear from you! Provide feedback on the Copilot Enterprise in this Discussion

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As of 27th February 2024, GitHub Copilot Enterprise is now generally available 🚀. Read more about Copilot Enterprise on our recent blog post.

This thread is just for product feedback.

We are responding to general Questions & Answers related to Copilot Enterprise in another discussion: Copilot Enterprise Q & A

[invixuscom-cmyk]

@LindseyB

Me ayudas?

[nake89]

@invixuscom-cmyk Nobody can help you.

[scr-oath]

TL;DR: Can we have the ability to mention @copilot on PRs where it is a reviewer and not the original author so that we can do spot prompting to have it fetch information or review a specific concern on that PR (without needing another PR to update copilot-instructions)?

While reviewing a peer's pullrequest (i.e. one authored by a human and not copilot), I have assigned copilot as a reviewer. I noticed some things to review that were not listed in the .github/copilot-instructions.md and I would like it to drill down and make detailed comments based on some prompts of something I have observed. I do enjoy the inline chat, but oftentimes, it does not create copy/pasteable markdown for me (usually when it has a mix of text + code) and therefore, I would crave being able to ask it to make the review comment (possibly with some credit or blame to me as having made the prompt).

It seems as though I can only mention @copilot when it is the author, and this really feels like something that I'd like to do on a human to human PR where I bring copilot in to gather information/links/styleguides/code-snippets/etc to help make the comment richer and more actionable and reduce the "human toil" for me as a reviewer.

As some for instances,

1. I often find some simple nitpick throughout a PR such as forgetting javadoc or not using a more sensible java 21 pattern (such as if (value instanceof SomeClass someClassValue) in order to both check and cast in one go. (oftentimes there are many instances of this and I feel silly/annoyed making the same comment dozens of times when Copilot could do that easily - if I don't comment everywhere, often the authors don't get all the cases 😦 and we end up going back-n-forth wasting both people's time)
2. I often find some use of something that could be better - such as, in golang, using the older style of making a copy of iterators (go made iterators a copy rather than reference and I'd like to send the link to its release notes and writeup rather than searching for it).
3. Sometimes folks writing JAX-RS / Jakarta applications don't embrace its CDI to the most natural and I would like to show them how to do it properly - an example would be making a custom class with a method that takes a string to create a singleton and managing the Map of name -> instance rather than using an annotation and injectionPoint and returning @Singleton or @ApplicationScoped to let the CDI framework take care of managing the mapping.

[ria-gopu]

Hi @scr-oath, I'd love to learn more - can you send me an email at ria-gopu [at] github.com?

[stefanirish]

I was just going to mention that +1

[cordialgerm]

I have several suggestions:

1 - it is very frustrating that any PR that the copilot agent has worked on becomes associated with copilot when you try to merge it. Meaning, copilot is the author automatically when you try to merge. At a minimum, allow me to choose myself as the author, especially when I need to fix a bunch of stuff in the branch anyway. Right now, I have to create a separate branch from the original just to do that

2 - I like that you can create an issue and assign it to copilot, and then have it work on the issue. Unfortunately, there's no way to choose which branch copilot should base its work on, it just uses the default. It is possible to do this when using the "Start a task" interface, so you can get around it by first creating the issue, and then starting a task with instructions to work on the issue, but it would be simpler to just be able to select the branch when assigning the issue

[roryeckel]

+1 for submodule support

[Mamuka1707]

working very well pretty satisfied with it

[balboFK]

We cancelled our subscription for our whole team, the only feature that makes it worth over Codex is the autocomplete, and sometimes even it is mostly wrong, with the problemns we talked about in the past still present makes no sense to use a tool that requires more managing than using.

[lpinho77]

I'm unable to use Copilot in Visual Studio, VS Code works fine because I'm able to authenticate against ghe.com, Visual Studio doesn't seem to have that option

[rajbos]

Have you checked this option for that!

https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-personal-settings/authenticate-to-ghecom?tool=visualstudio

[lpinho77]

Thanks rajbos, never found this page on my searches. Thanks for your help