Posted 11/12/2024

Tips and Tricks for Copilot in VS Code and VS

GitHub Copilot is getting smarter every month — and both VS Code and Visual Studio offer features beyond simple inline suggestions. Here’s a collection of practical tips, commands, and best practices to get the most out of it.

General

@workspace – a chat participant that understands your workspace, codebase, and project structure. It’s ideal for explaining code, generating tests, or helping with refactors.

Slash commands – shorthand for common tasks:

  • /new – create a new file or workspace element

  • /fix – suggest a fix for the current issue or error

  • /test – generate unit tests for the selected code

  • /explain – describe what a method or block of code does

  • /optimize – refactor or improve performance and readability

  • /doc – create or update documentation and XML comments

Type / in the chat input to see all supported commands.

Prompting Tips

Copilot performs best when you give it context. Instead of vague prompts like “optimize this code”, try being explicit:

// Optimize this method for readability and performance.
// Use LINQ and avoid multiple enumerations.
  • Start with a short comment or summary describing what you want before you start coding.
  • Keep relevant files open – Copilot can only read context from open buffers.
  • Use clear, descriptive names for methods and variables; Copilot uses them to infer intent.
  • When asking in chat, provide a goal and constraints, e.g.: “Refactor this class to use dependency injection but keep public API unchanged.”

Workspace Awareness

Copilot can understand your entire workspace when you use @workspace. This is especially powerful for large projects or when working across multiple files.

  • @workspace explain how authentication works
  • @workspace find where FileService is used
  • @workspace add a new command handler for deleting files

Tip: You can index your workspace in VS Code settings so Copilot can search and reason across the entire solution.

VS Code Shortcuts

  • Inline chat → Ctrl + I or right-click → Ask Copilot
  • Chat window → Ctrl + Alt + I
  • Trigger suggestion manually → Alt + \
  • Cycle through suggestions → Alt + ] and Alt + [
  • Accept line suggestion → Tab
  • Accept full suggestion → Ctrl + →

You can snooze inline suggestions if you want Copilot to stay silent for a while (Ctrl + . → “Snooze”).

Visual Studio Shortcuts

  • Inline chat → Alt + / or right-click → Ask Copilot
  • Chat tool window → View → GitHub Copilot Chat
  • Generate code explanations → highlight → Ask Copilot → Explain
  • Generate tests → highlight → Ask Copilot → Write unit tests

In Visual Studio, Copilot is tightly integrated with Solution Explorer — you can invoke it directly on classes or files.