wtf is vscode-copilot-chat?

This repository contains the GitHub Copilot Chat extension for Visual Studio Code, an AI tool that acts as a pair programmer while you write code. It has since been moved directly into the main VS Code repository, but this page documents what the tool does. The core idea is that instead of writing everything yourself, you can describe what you want, and the AI handles the heavy lifting of writing, editing, and fixing code across your project. At a high level, the tool offers a few ways to help. It can act as an autonomous agent: you give it a task like building a new feature or fixing a bug, and it plans the steps, edits multiple files, runs terminal commands, and corrects its own mistakes. It also provides inline suggestions as you type, predicting your next logical change so you can accept it with a keystroke. For quick, targeted edits, you can open a chat prompt right inside your editor to ask for things like refactoring a function or adding error handling. Anyone who writes code would use this, from beginners learning the ropes to experienced developers managing large projects. A solo founder could ask it to build out a new feature across several files while they focus on the big picture. A team lead could use it to plan a complex task before handing the plan off to an agent that creates a branch and opens a pull request for review. It supports all popular programming languages and lets you customize it with your project's specific coding guidelines. One notable aspect is how tightly it integrates with VS Code. Because it is built into the editor, it can track multiple agent sessions at once, connect to external tools, and even work with different AI providers like Claude. The tradeoff is that new versions only work with the latest release of VS Code, so you need to keep your editor updated to get the newest features and AI models. A paid subscription is required.