Introduction: Copilot Is My Coding Companion
I still remember the first time I heard about GitHub Copilot. It sounded too good to be true: "An AI that writes code for you?" As a backend developer who lives in Visual Studio day in and day out, I was curious but skeptical. Fast forward to now—Copilot has become a surprisingly helpful teammate. In this post, I’ll share how I use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, real examples from my workflow, and what you should know before diving in.
What Is GitHub Copilot?
In simple terms, GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool created by GitHub and OpenAI. It works like an AI pair programmer, offering code suggestions and auto-completions based on what you’re typing. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t just guess—Copilot understands context, whether you’re writing a method, a comment, or even a unit test.
I often describe it to colleagues like this: "Imagine IntelliSense, but on steroids, trained on thousands of open-source projects."
Why I Use Copilot in Visual Studio
As someone who works extensively with C# and .NET in Visual Studio, integrating Copilot into my favorite IDE just made sense. Here’s why I love using it:
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🧠 It reduces boilerplate. DTOs, mapping methods, repetitive property sets? Copilot nails them.
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🚀 It speeds up development. Especially during prototyping or writing unit tests.
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💡 It inspires alternate solutions. Sometimes it suggests an approach I didn’t consider.
It doesn't replace my brain—but it definitely boosts it.
How to Set Up GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio (Step-by-Step)
Getting started is easier than you might think. Here’s how to get GitHub Copilot working in Visual Studio:
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Requirements:
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Visual Studio 2022 or later.
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An active GitHub account.
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GitHub Copilot subscription (or trial).
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Installation:
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Open Visual Studio.
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Go to Extensions > Manage Extensions.
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Search for “GitHub Copilot” and install it.
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Restart Visual Studio after the install.
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Activate and Sign In:
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Open Tools > Options > GitHub Copilot.
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Sign in with your GitHub account.
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Enable Copilot suggestions.
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Start Typing:
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Create a new C# file, start typing a method signature, or add a comment.
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Copilot will suggest code as you type (just press Tab to accept).
Real-Life Examples from My Projects
Here are a few personal examples where GitHub Copilot genuinely helped:
✨ 1. Refactoring a Legacy API
I was updating a monolithic API, and Copilot auto-suggested an async wrapper for a sync method. It saved me a good 10 minutes of copy-pasting and tweaking.
✨ 2. Writing Unit Tests
While writing tests for an Entity Framework repository, Copilot suggested Arrange-Act-Assert structure based on the method name alone. All I had to do was tweak the details.
✨ 3. Implementing Interfaces
Instead of writing all the method stubs manually, Copilot wrote complete method signatures and even added common throw statements.
It’s these little wins that add up every day.
What Copilot Gets Right (and Where It Needs Help)
✅ Great at:
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Repetitive patterns (getters/setters, constructor injection, common loops).
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Regex and LINQ snippets.
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Helping with documentation comments.
⚠️ Needs improvement:
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Sometimes hallucinates non-existent APIs or methods.
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Doesn’t know about your private methods or custom business logic.
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Shouldn’t be blindly trusted for security-critical or complex logic.
Pro tip: Treat Copilot’s output like a code suggestion from a junior developer—helpful, but review it carefully.
Final Thoughts: Copilot Is a Tool, Not a Crutch
GitHub Copilot won’t replace developers anytime soon. But it does what good tools are supposed to do: help us think faster, prototype quicker, and reduce the mental fatigue of boilerplate code.
For me, it has become a reliable sidekick in Visual Studio. I still write and review every line of code—but I write smarter, with less friction.
If you’re using Visual Studio and haven’t tried Copilot yet, give it a shot. You might be surprised how quickly it becomes part of your workflow.
Have you tried Copilot yet? Let me know how it fits (or doesn’t) into your development flow. I’d love to hear your take!