WEBVTT

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Now, I showed you before that you can

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also configure this inline chat.

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And for that, of course, you can go to

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your settings, your workspace or user

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settings, depending on whether you

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want to tweak the settings for this

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specific workspace or for all your

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projects for this VS Code user.

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And then in there, you can also search

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for a copilot chat.

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You can also simply search for just

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copilot without chat to find all the

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options you have in general for

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configuring copilot, both its chat

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functionality and its auto-completion

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functionality.

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You can, for example, control for which

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specific languages you want to enable

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GitHub Copilot.

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By default here for me, it is enabled for

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all languages except for the ones which

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are explicitly disabled here.

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So that for example, in Markdown files, I

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don't get GitHub Copilot suggestions.

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But if I wanted them there, I could set

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this to true or simply remove this entry.

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And on the other hand, if you have

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certain languages where you don't want

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GitHub Copilot to become active, you

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can add them here and set them to

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false.

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So that's one thing that could be

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interesting.

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Now, you'll also find more GitHub Copilot

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and GitHub Copilot chat related settings

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here.

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And I will also say that they will change

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over time.

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New settings will be added, other

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settings might be removed.

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So it's best to simply have a look at these

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settings from time to time to see how

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you might want to tweak GitHub Copilot

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to make sure that it really works the way

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you want it to work.

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Now two settings I find particularly

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noteworthy are this setting here to

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support instruction files, which allows

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you to add a copilot-instructions.md file,

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so a Markdown file with that specific

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name in a .github folder in your project.

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And you could put your own

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instructions, which should be short and

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precise into that file.

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And if you then enable this setting,

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GitHub Copilot would take these

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instructions into account whenever it

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generates code through its chat

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functionality.

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So you could, for example, describe a

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certain code style you want to enforce in

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such a instructions file.

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That is not something I'm using in all my

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projects, but it is something that can

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definitely be helpful in some projects, as

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it can help ensure that the code

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suggestions and the code snippets

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generated by Copilot are correct

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immediately or at least a bit sooner than

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they otherwise might be.

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So putting those instructions into this

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file might save you some extra iteration

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cycles where you tell Copilot to change

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the code.

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That's the idea here.

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By putting these instructions into this

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file, you have a higher chance of getting

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suggestions that are the way you want

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them right from the start.

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So that is one setting you should

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consider enabling.

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Then you have to add this file in this

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specific .github folder, put your

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instructions into that file, keep them

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short and precise, and see how that

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affects the code generations created by

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GitHub Copilot.

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It is worth noting, as mentioned here,

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that poor instructions can actually lead

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to worse results than having no

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instructions at all, which is why, again,

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I'm not using this feature all the time,

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but it is worth a closer look.

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Now another very useful or very

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interesting feature, in my opinion, is this

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temporal context feature here.

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This feature, when enabled, ensures that

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GitHub Copilot automatically takes the

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last edited files and the code it saw right

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before you start asking a question into

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account.

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So if you just worked in file A and you

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then try to use GitHub Copilot chat in file

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B, any code you might have in file A

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should hopefully be taken into account

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for generating the answer for your

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question you might have asked in file B,

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so in another file.

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So for example, if file A exports a certain

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function and a good answer for your

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question in file B uses this function, if

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that's the case, GitHub Copilot hopefully

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takes its knowledge of what it saw in file

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A and suggests importing that function

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and using that function.

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So it simply helps with working with

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code that's split across multiple files, for

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example.

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This temporal context feature can be

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very useful for that.

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Well, and then as mentioned, there are

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more settings and as also mentioned,

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settings that are likely to change and

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evolve over time.

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Simply scroll through them.

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Be aware of the fact that there are

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things you can configure and play

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around with them.

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Find the settings that provide the best

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results to you because of course the

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experience will also change over time

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because AI models change and so on.

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That's why you should definitely take a

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look at these settings and find the

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settings that best work for you.

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The specific hints I gave you here

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hopefully are a good starting point.