copilot-sdk

GitHub Copilot SDK

Build applications that programmatically interact with GitHub Copilot

Staleness Watch: See EXTERNAL-API-REGISTRY.md for source URLs and recheck cadence

The SDK wraps the Copilot CLI via JSON-RPC, providing session management, custom tools, hooks, MCP server integration, and streaming across Node.js, Python, Go, and .NET.

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Prerequisites

• GitHub Copilot CLI installed and authenticated (copilot --version)
• GitHub Copilot subscription (Individual, Business, or Enterprise) — not required for BYOK
• Runtime: Node.js 24+ / Python 3.10+ / Go 1.21+ / .NET 8.0+

Installation

Language	Package	Install
Node.js	@github/copilot-sdk	npm install @github/copilot-sdk
Python	github-copilot-sdk	pip install github-copilot-sdk
Go	github.com/github/copilot-sdk/go	go get github.com/github/copilot-sdk/go
.NET	GitHub.Copilot.SDK	dotnet add package GitHub.Copilot.SDK

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Architecture

Your App → SDK Client → [stdio/TCP] → Copilot CLI → Model Provider
                                           ↕
                                      MCP Servers

Transport modes:

Mode	Description	Use Case
Stdio (default)	CLI as subprocess via pipes	Local dev, single process
TCP	CLI as network server	Multi-client, backend services

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Core Pattern: Client → Session → Message

Node.js / TypeScript

import { CopilotClient } from "@github/copilot-sdk";

const client = new CopilotClient();
const session = await client.createSession({ model: "gpt-4.1" });

const response = await session.sendAndWait({ prompt: "What is 2 + 2?" });
console.log(response?.data.content);

await client.stop();

Python

import asyncio
from copilot import CopilotClient

async def main():
    client = CopilotClient()
    await client.start()
    session = await client.create_session({"model": "gpt-4.1"})
    response = await session.send_and_wait({"prompt": "What is 2 + 2?"})
    print(response.data.content)
    await client.stop()

asyncio.run(main())