copilot.el
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An unofficial Copilot plugin for Emacs.
Copilot.el
Copilot.el is an Emacs plugin for GitHub Copilot.

Warning: This plugin is unofficial and based on binaries provided by copilot.vim.
Note: You need access to GitHub Copilot to use this plugin.
Installation
-
Ensure your Emacs version is at least 27.
-
Install Node.js (only support 12.x to 17.x, limited by upstream). Workaround for node.js v18+ users: install an old version of node.js via nvm and set
copilot-node-executableto it. -
Setup
copilot.elas described in the next section. -
Login to Copilot by
M-x copilot-login. You can also check the status byM-x copilot-diagnose. -
Enjoy!
Configurations
Example for Doom Emacs
Add package definition to ~/.doom.d/packages.el:
(package! copilot
:recipe (:host github :repo "zerolfx/copilot.el" :files ("*.el" "dist")))
Configure copilot in ~/.doom.d/config.el:
;; accept completion from copilot and fallback to company
(use-package! copilot
:hook (prog-mode . copilot-mode)
:bind (("C-TAB" . 'copilot-accept-completion-by-word)
("C-<tab>" . 'copilot-accept-completion-by-word)
:map copilot-completion-map
("<tab>" . 'copilot-accept-completion)
("TAB" . 'copilot-accept-completion)))
Strongly recommend to enable childframe option in company module ((company +childframe)) to prevent overlay conflict.
Example for Spacemacs
Edit your ~/.spacemacs:
;; ===================
;; dotspacemacs/layers
;; ===================
;; add copilot.el to additional packages
dotspacemacs-additional-packages
'((copilot :location (recipe
:fetcher github
:repo "zerolfx/copilot.el"
:files ("*.el" "dist"))))
;; ========================
;; dotspacemacs/user-config
;; ========================
;; accept completion from copilot and fallback to company
(with-eval-after-load 'company
;; disable inline previews
(delq 'company-preview-if-just-one-frontend company-frontends))
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "<tab>") 'copilot-accept-completion)
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "TAB") 'copilot-accept-completion)
(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'copilot-mode)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map (kbd "C-<tab>") 'copilot-accept-completion-by-word)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map (kbd "C-TAB") 'copilot-accept-completion-by-word)
General Configurations
1. Load copilot.el
Option 1: Load via straight.el (recommended)
(use-package copilot
:straight (:host github :repo "zerolfx/copilot.el" :files ("dist" "*.el"))
:ensure t)
;; you can utilize :map :hook and :config to customize copilot
Option 2: Load manually
Please make sure you have these dependencies installed, and use load-file or load-path + require to load it.
dashseditorconfig
2. Configure completion
Option 1: Use copilot-mode to automatically provide completions
(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'copilot-mode)
To customize the behavior of copilot-mode, please check copilot-enable-predicates and copilot-disable-predicates.
Option 2: Manually provide completions
You need to bind copilot-complete to some key and call copilot-clear-overlay inside post-command-hook.
3. Configure completion acceptation
In general, you need to bind copilot-accept-completion to some key in order to accept the completion. Also, you may find copilot-accept-completion-by-word is useful.
Example of using tab with company-mode
(with-eval-after-load 'company
;; disable inline previews
(delq 'company-preview-if-just-one-frontend company-frontends))
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "<tab>") 'copilot-accept-completion)
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "TAB") 'copilot-accept-completion)
Example of using tab with auto-complete
; complete by copilot first, then auto-complete
(defun my-tab ()
(interactive)
(or (copilot-accept-completion)
(ac-expand nil)))
(with-eval-after-load 'auto-complete
; disable inline preview
(setq ac-disable-inline t)
; show menu if have only one candidate
(setq ac-candidate-menu-min 0))
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "<tab>") 'copilot-accept-completion)
(define-key copilot-completion-map (kbd "TAB") 'copilot-accept-completion)
Example of defining tab in copilot-mode
This is useful if you don't want to depend on a particular completion framework.
(defun my/copilot-tab ()
(interactive)
(or (copilot-accept-completion)
(indent-for-tab-command)))
(with-eval-after-load 'copilot
(define-key copilot-mode-map (kbd "<tab>") #'my/copilot-tab))
Or with evil-mode:
(with-eval-after-load 'copilot
(evil-define-key 'insert copilot-mode-map
(kbd "<tab>") #'my/copilot-tab))
Commands
copilot-diagnose
Check the current status of the plugin. Also you can check logs in the *copilot events* buffer and stderr output in the *copilot stderr* buffer.
copilot-login
Login to GitHub, required for using the plugin.
copilot-mode
Enable/disable copilot mode.
copilot-complete
Try to complete at the current point.
copilot-accept-completion
Accept the current completion.
copilot-clear-overlay
Clear copilot overlay in the current buffer.
copilot-accept-completion-by-line / copilot-accept-completion-by-word
Similar to copilot-accept-completion, but accept the completion by line or word. You can use prefix argument to specify the number of lines or words to accept.
copilot-next-completion / copilot-previous-completion
Cycle through the completion list.
copilot-logout
Logout from GitHub.
Customization
copilot-node-executable
The executable path of Node.js.
copilot-idle-delay
Time in seconds to wait before starting completion (default to 0). Note Copilot itself has a ~100ms delay because of network communication.
copilot-enable-predicates
A list of predicate functions with no argument to enable Copilot in copilot-mode. Copilot will be enabled only if all predicates return t.
copilot-disable-predicates
A list of predicate functions with no argument to disable Copilot in copilot-mode. Copilot will be disabled if any predicate returns t.
Known Issues
Wrong Position of Other Completion Popups

This is an example of using together with default frontend of company-mode. Because both company-mode and copilot.el use overlay to show completion, so the conflict is inevitable.
To solve the problem, I recommend you to use company-box (only available on GUI), which is based on child frame rather than overlay.
After using company-box, you have:

In other editors (e.g. VS Code, PyCharm), completions from copilot and other sources can not show at the same time.
But I decided to allow them to coexist, allowing you to choose a better one at any time.
Cursor Jump to End of Line When Typing
- If you are using
whitespace-mode, make sure to removenewline-markfromwhitespace-style.
Reporting Bugs
- Make sure you have restarted your Emacs (and rebuild the plugin if necessary) after updating the plugin.
- Please paste related logs in the
*copilot events*and*copilot stderr*buffer. - If an exception is thrown, please also paste the stack trace (use
M-x toggle-debug-on-errorto enable stack trace).
Roadmap
- [x] Setup Copilot without Neovim
- [x] Cycle through suggestions
- [x] Add Copilot minor-mode
- [ ] ~~Add package to MELPA~~
Thanks
These projects helped me a lot:
- https://github.com/TommyX12/company-tabnine/
- https://github.com/cryptobadger/flight-attendant.el
- https://github.com/github/copilot.vim