Copilot extensibility is here: What you need to know

We recently announced Copilot Extensions to create the most integrated, powerful and intelligent AI developer platform. This first release with a select few partners enables developers to build and deploy to the cloud in their natural language without leaving GitHub.com or their IDE.

But this is just the start. We recognize that a thriving ecosystem benefits from a diverse array of partner solutions. That is why we need our community of developers to be ready to contribute with their own powerful experiences.

This article will get you ready to start.

Copilot Chat

Users leverage GitHub Copilot Chat to invoke a number of tools to get context, perform actions, and generate files and pull requests.They can do so without having to remember specific commands, flags or syntax. Users can stay in the flow by using natural language queries.

Copilot extensions expand these capabilities by integrating partners’ environments into GitHub. Here are some examples that showcase the power of integration.

• The Octopus Deploy extension integrates with a text based dashboard and identifies additional important details like security vulnerabilities.
• The Sentry extension integrates with GitHub Issues to create, track, summarize and suggest a code fix.
• The DataStax extension gives detailed instructions on how to install and use their database.

GitHub Apps

To provide users with the chat capabilities, partners will integrate through a GitHub App. GitHub Apps are tools that extend GitHub’s functionality and optionally can be published to the GitHub Marketplace as Copilot Apps.

A Copilot Chat extension will seamlessly integrate with VS Code, Visual Studio, and github.com, with other IDEs in development. As this extension is a GitHub App, by definition, application permissions and other GitHub App governance rules will apply. For instance, an organization administrator may restrict where an app can be installed.

Programs and Agreements

Start by joining the Technology Partner Program. The TPP is the overarching program to which we work with partners. You need to be a member of that program while we are in the Limited Public Beta phase. You can view the terms and conditions of that program before you join. The TPP will provide a number of benefits including licenses to which to test on GitHub as well as access to our support through our team.

Specifically for Copilot, we are also asking that partners join the Copilot Partner Program waitlist. In our experience, it can take some time for partners to review and understand the agreements that need to be in place. We’ve put these online for you to review. There are the Copilot pre-release terms and GitHub Marketplace Developer Agreement. Once partners have been accepted into the program, partners will be presented with a GitHub Plugin Acceptable Development and Use Policy. Partners will then have access to the build kit.

We have updated the terms and conditions to protect end user privacy and data. To learn more about how GitHub Copilot and GitHub Apps secure and keep user data private please visit the GitHub Copilot Trust Center.

“Partner-Ship” Webinar

We will be hosting a webinar, Copilot Extensions Featuring Insights from Atlassian, Elastic and Split on June 26th at 10:00AM PDT (UTC-7) that will recap our current partner offerings and provide additional partner news and product updates.

GitHub Universe

This year marks our 10th anniversary for GitHub Universe. We will be at Fort Mason, San Francisco on October 29th-30th. We will showcase our latest Copilot extensibility scenarios to developers. For partners that are in the Technology Partner Program and attending Universe we will also be hosting a Partner Connect - Day 0 to provide more details on latest news, insights and partner program. To participate, you must be a TPP member and registered attendee at Universe. Stay tuned for more program information about Day 0 and Universe.

Let’s build from here with partners! Please visit partner.github.com for more information and help.