copilot-sdk

GitHub Copilot SDK

Build AI-powered applications that leverage Copilot's agentic workflows. The SDK exposes the same engine behind Copilot CLI—a production-tested agent runtime you can invoke programmatically.

Status: Technical Preview

When to Use This Skill

• Creating applications that need programmatic access to GitHub Copilot
• Building custom AI agents with tool integration
• Developing CLI tools or backends powered by Copilot
• Integrating Copilot capabilities into existing applications

Prerequisites

1. GitHub Copilot Subscription - Required for SDK usage
2. Copilot CLI - Must be installed and in PATH (installation guide)

Installation

Language	Package	Command
TypeScript/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

Architecture

Your Application → SDK Client → JSON-RPC → Copilot CLI (server mode)

---

Quick Start Examples

TypeScript

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

const client = new CopilotClient();
await client.start();

const session = await client.createSession({ model: "gpt-5" });

session.on((event) => {
    if (event.type === "assistant.message") {
        console.log(event.data.content);
    } else if (event.type === "session.idle") {
        // Session finished processing
    }
});

await session.send({ prompt: "What is 2+2?" });
await session.destroy();
await client.stop();

Python

from copilot import CopilotClient

client = CopilotClient()
await client.start()

session = await client.create_session({"model": "gpt-5"})

def on_event(event):
    if event["type"] == "assistant.message":
        print(event["data"]["content"])

session.on(on_event)
await session.send({"prompt": "What is 2+2?"})
await session.destroy()
await client.stop()