Copilot Chat is a conversational AI assistant built into your editor, purpose-built for coding tasks.

Chat Locations

• Chat panel — Side panel for extended conversations
• Inline chat — Ctrl+I to chat about specific code in context
• Quick chat — Ctrl+Shift+I for fast questions without opening a panel

Slash Commands

Copilot Chat has powerful built-in commands:

• /explain — Explain selected code in plain language
• /tests — Generate unit tests for selected code
• /fix — Propose a fix for bugs or errors
• /doc — Generate documentation or comments
• /optimize — Suggest performance improvements
• /new — Scaffold a new project or file
• /newNotebook — Create a Jupyter notebook

Context Variables

Reference specific context with # mentions:

• #file — Reference a specific file
• #selection — Reference selected code
• #editor — Reference the current editor content
• #terminalLastCommand — Reference the last terminal output
• #terminalSelection — Reference selected terminal text

Example: "Using #file:schema.prisma, generate TypeScript types for the User model"

Practical Examples

Debug an error:

I'm getting "Cannot read properties of undefined" on line 42. Here's the error from #terminalLastCommand. What's wrong?

Refactor code:

Refactor #selection to use the Strategy pattern. Keep the same public API.

Learn a library:

How do I use React Query's useMutation with optimistic updates? Show me an example using #file:api.ts

Generate tests:

/tests for #file:auth.service.ts — include edge cases for expired tokens and invalid credentials