Peter Zhang
Feb 27, 2026 16:25
GitHub releases practical guide for Copilot CLI as the AI coding assistant reaches general availability for all paid subscribers in February 2026.
GitHub has published a comprehensive workflow guide for its Copilot CLI tool, coinciding with the AI coding assistant’s general availability release for all paid Copilot subscribers. The guide, authored by Senior Service Delivery Engineer Ari LiVigni, outlines a practical approach to building applications entirely from the command line.
The timing isn’t accidental. After entering public preview in September 2025 and reportedly achieving 10x speed improvements by November, Copilot CLI now reaches full production status across Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise tiers.
What Copilot CLI Actually Does
The tool functions as a GitHub-aware coding agent that accepts natural language prompts directly in your terminal. Describe what you want to build, and it proposes commands, file structures, and code diffs for your review. Nothing executes until you approve it.
Key commands include /plan for outlining work before touching code, /diff for reviewing proposed changes, and /delegate for opening pull requests. The interactive mode allows back-and-forth refinement, while the -p flag handles single prompts for quick tasks.
The Workflow GitHub Recommends
Rather than starting with framework selection or template copying, the guide suggests beginning with intent statements. From an empty directory, you’d run something like: copilot -p “Create a small web service with a single JSON endpoint and basic tests”
The CLI then suggests a stack, outlines files, and proposes setup commands. You inspect everything before execution—treating output like code from a teammate rather than gospel.
For iteration, the pattern becomes: run tests, inspect failures, ask Copilot about specific errors, review the proposed fix. This keeps the agent grounded in real output rather than abstract prompts.
Where It Fits in the Stack
GitHub positions CLI as the speed layer, IDE integrations as the precision layer, and GitHub itself as the collaboration layer. Use CLI to move fast with low ceremony, switch to your editor when design decisions need defending, then ship via pull request.
The tool also handles mechanical changes that are easy to describe but tedious to execute—renaming variables across a repository, updating test files, generating boilerplate. These changes produce reviewable diffs rather than walls of generated text.
SDK Access for Builders
Developers building tools that need agentic execution embedded in their applications can access the Copilot SDK, currently in technical preview. This provides programmatic access to the same planning and execution engine without requiring custom orchestration logic.
The distinction matters: CLI serves interactive terminal workflows, while the SDK exposes the execution engine for application integration. GitHub-specific features like repository-scoped memory remain CLI-only.
A companion GitHub Skills exercise provides hands-on practice in a preconfigured Codespaces environment, walking through Node.js calculator app creation, test writing, and pull request workflows.
Image source: Shutterstock
