changes.md

📅 25 October 2024

As the team prepares for GitHub Universe next week, we were primarily focused on stabilization, bug fixing, and welcoming new preview users (as we continue to ramp up the waitlist!). That said, we also managed to slip in a few enhancements as well 😄

• AI vision
• Auto-installed extension
• Command status

AI vision

If you open an issue in CW, and that issue includes images in it's description, then those images will now be included in the context of the task. This is a pretty significant capability, since it unlocks new ways of defining your intent, such as using...

1. Architecture/class diagrams, that outline the structure of code you want to generate (example)
2. App screenshots, which visually highlight a part of the UI you want to change
3. UI mock-ups, which describe the layout/behavior of some client code you want to write
4. Photographs, which capture hand-written notes or drawings from a meeting

When combined with custom instructions and web URLs, AI vision expands CW's support for managing task context, and defining your tasks in whichever way is most natural. And we're excited to hear how folks make use of it!

Note: If you want to give this feature a try, you need to enable the Use summaries of images in the context setting in the Experiments dialog (underneath the avatar menu).

Auto-installed extension

When you click the Open in Codespace button in a session, the Copilot Workspace extension for VS Code is now automatically installed within the Codespace. Why is this cool? Because that allows you to transition to the editor, while still being able to view the details of the task and plan. Additionally, it allows you to continue performing NL-based revision, in addition to any many edits.

Command status

The build/test/run button in the Commands tab now displays the status of the current/last run command. That way if you're actively using the Terminal tab, you can still see that a build (or test/run) is in-progress. Or that the build you were running in parallel, just succeeded 👍

📅 18 October 2024

• Error repair
• Follow ups
• Brainstorm enhancements
• Plan command enhancements

Error repair

When a build/test/run command fails, CW now displays a lightbulb button in the command's toolbar. When you click this, it will trigger a brainstorming action, and then offer a suggestion for how to fix the error.

When a suggestion comes back, it will include an explaination of the issue, and then present a fix in one of two forms:

1. A terminal command, which can be run in order to resolve the issue (e.g. installing a missing environment dependency)
2. A plan update, which can be applied, and then implemented in the impacted file(s) (e.g. missing imports, type errors)

Terminal fix	Plan fix

After accepting a suggestion, you can then re-run the failed command, and hopefully see it pass. That said, if you encounter another issue (e.g. a build with multiple errors), then you can just continue to command + repair as much as needed 🚀

Follow ups

We've introduced a new capability into CW, that we're calling Follow up. And we're pretty excited about it 😃

Let's talk about why it's useful!

When you're working against a large repository that has complex/inter-file dependencies, it's possible that a simple change/refactoring can impact many other places across the codebase (e.g. updating a shared method signature). And while the plan can do a great job of identifying the core changes needed for a task (the "primary edits"), it can sometimes miss transitive changes that are needed in response (e.g. updating callers of a changed function).

To address this, after you've implemented a plan, you can open up the Commands tab and click the new Follow up button. This will perform a thorough, fine-grained check on your codebase + edits, to see if any additional changes are required, in order to complete your task. And if any follow-ups are detected, it will edit the neccessary files, and add them to your existing implementation 👍

This workflow is pretty slick, because it allows the initial CW plan to be both fast and focused, which makes it quicker for you to get to code, and easier for you to review the essence of the change. And in cases that a change has repo-wide impact, you can simply trigger a follow up and let Copilot do the rest 😎

How can you try it?

At the moment, this experience supports codebases that are written in TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Java, and C#. So if you're working in one of those languages, we'd love to hear your feedback! And if not, we'd love to hear whether this capability would be useful, in order to help us prioritize new languages in the future 🙏

And while we let this capability bake a bit, it's currently disabled by default. So if you'd like to give it a try, simply open the Experiments panel (under the avatar menu) and check the Enable follow up setting.

Brainstorm enhancements

When you open an issue in CW, or click the Brainstorm button for ad-hoc tasks, the initially-generated question (How do I solve this issue?) is now presented in a "special" structured format. The response includes two sections (Current behavior / Proposed solution), and has the advantage of allowing you to add/edit/delete/organize any of the steps, in a very granular way.

Additionally, since we're treating this question as "special", it's automatically updated any time you attach an additional brainstorming question/idea to the task. That way, you can continue to brainstorm further, and ensure that CW's understanding of the overall solution remains always up-to-date 👍

Plan command enhancements

When a plan includes a Commands section (e.g. because your task required installing 3rd-party dependencies), you can now execute an individual command, in addition to the existing "Execute all" support. Additionally, the completion status of commands are now persisted. So when you resume a CW session later, you can see which commands were already run, which failed, and which are still outstanding.

📅 11 October 2024

• Commands
  • Running commands
  • Command setup / inference
  • NL command suggestions
  • Plan commands
• Action bar mode picker
• Open in VS Code
• External URL context
• Auto-completing sessions
• High contrast mode
• Custom instructions

Commands

As part of our continued revamp of the CW UX (e.g. brainstorming, the action bar, file tabs/tree, etc.), we've introduced a new capability called Commands, which replaces the integrated terminal with a full-height panel, and provides a simplified experience for executing and configuring a build/test/run against your code. Conceptually, you can think of this as being the centralized "hub" for all tasks in the workspace that require executing a shell command.

And similar to brainstorming, this capability is significant enough in scope, that we need to describe it in four distinct parts 😄

• Running commands
• Command setup / inference
• NL command suggestions
• Plan commands

Running commands

To begin using the new Commands hub, simply click the existing terminal icon in the header bar. Once opened, it will automatically create and connect to a backing Codespace, so you can start running commands as needed. And if your repository has been configured with a postAttachCommand (in your devcontainer.json file), then you'll see a Post attach entry appear, that let's you view the output of its underlying shell commands.

Additionally, if you've configured a build, test, or launch task in your devcontainer.json, then you can click to run any of those. This will result in the command being displayed in the list on the Output tab, and allow you to view its output, stop it, or re-run it once complete (e.g. to re-trigger a build after editing code).

And just like the existing terminal, if a build/test/run command starts a server, then it will be automatically forwarded, so you can securely view it.

Command setup / inference

If you haven't configured any tasks in your devcontainer.json, then you can simply click on either the build, test, or run command, and then type the respective shell commands into the task editor. When you do that, the entered commands will be automatically added to a devcontainer.json file for you, so you can include them in your subsequent PR.

And if you don't know how to perform a build/test/run on the current repo, then simply click the lightbulb icon next to a task and let CW suggest how to do it for you 🚀

NL command suggestions

While we've optimized the UX for building, testing, and running your code, there are many other tasks you might need to perform during a session (e.g. linting, formatting, etc.). And to make that simpler, the action bar now enters "command mode" (when you're focused on the Commands tab), which lets you describe a shell command you want to run, using only natural language.

After typing an NL request, you'll be presented with a command suggestion, which you can edit or regenerate. And if you click the Run button, it will open the Terminal tab on the Commands hub, and execute it on your behalf.

Plan commands

The "plan commands" feature is now on by default, and when a plan includes shell commands (e.g. running a package manager to include a new dependency), it will execute them via a new Plan command entry in the Commands tab.

Action bar mode picker

The action bar now allows you to seamlessly switch between its three modes: Ask, Revise, and Command. This ensures that regardless what state your session is in, you can ask a question, revise the plan/implemented files, or execute a terminal command. All using natural language 💙

Even cooler, you can switch between any of these modes using the following keyboard shortcuts, which make it really easy to navigate a session, while jumping between brainstorming, code iteration, and terminal actions.

Mode	Keyboard shortcut
Ask	?
Revise	>
Command	$

Additionally, each mode retains a history of its previous request. So if you realize you wanted to ask a question a slightly different way, or make a subtly different revision, then simply hit the up arrow, edit, and submit 👍

By introducing the new Commands tab, and allowing all three of the action bar's modes to be usable at any time, the action bar is now the official "central nervous system" for the entire CW experience. We've really fallen in love with how it feels to start and iterate on tasks now. And we're excited to hear how it feels for everyone else! 👋

Open in VS Code

After a month of amazing feedback from our preview users, we've officially published the Copilot Workspace extension to the VS Code marketplace 🥳

And in order to make it even easier to use, we've introduced a new Open in VS Code button to the CW session header. When you click it, we'll launch VS Code, and open your current session directly from within the editor. That way you can start tasks and brainstorm from the web (or your phone!), and when you want to jump into VS Code to finish it off (e.g. step-debug some code), you can now do that in a single-click 💪

Additionally, the official extension release also includes a ton of new capabilities that make the E2E experience a lot better. In particular, we've enhanced the Sessions and Plan views in the following ways...

Sessions view

In order to make it easier to manage many sessions, your sessions list is now grouped by repository, and each session displays an icon based on its respective type: issue, task, or PR. Additionally, when you're done with a session, you can now delete it directly from the editor, by hovering over it and clicking the trash can icon.

Plan view

The VS Code extension now has full parity with the CW web client, when it comes to iterating on the plan and code in a session. And in particular, you can now perform the following actions on the plan, directly from the Plan view:

1. Adding, editing, and deleting files
2. Adding, editing, and deleting steps for a file
3. Re-organizing the plan, by moving/indenting files and steps

To access these new capabilities, simply click the ... menu next to a file or step in the plan. We're pretty happy with how this experience "feels", and we're looking forwarding to hearing more feedback 🙌

Plan file actions	Plan step actions

If you use VS Code Insiders, then set the Open in VS Code Insiders setting, and the Open in VS Code button which launch Insiders instead of Stable.

External URL context

We've enabled external URL fetching by default, and made the following improvements to the overall user experience:

1. The content of external URLs are now included in the context while brainstorming. This is cool because it allows you to ask questions and ensure they can "see" any meaningful context you've added to the task (e.g. GitHub issues, external documentation)
2. You can now enable/disable individual URLs from the Task panel, which allows you to control which external content is used as context, without needing to modify the task description.

Note: If you'd like to disable external URLs from being enabled by default, then you can turn off the Automatically include external URLs in context setting in your Settings panel (underneath the avatar menu).

Auto-completing sessions

We introduced a new setting that allows you to automatically mark sessions as complete after creating a PR/branch/repo for them. For users that create many sessions, this can help keep your Recent sessions list (on the dashboard) nice and clean. And if you later decide that you need to continue a session that was marked as complete, you can always resume it from the Completed sessions list at any time :thumb:

To enable this behavior, open your user Settings (underneath the avatar menu in the upper-right), and select the Mark sessions as complete after committing option.

High contrast mode

CW already supports a light and dark color theme, and will match your system preference automatically. However, to further improve usability for all users, we've introduced support for a new high-contrast mode of both color themes.

To enable this behavior, open your user Settings (underneath the avatar menu in the upper-right), and select the Enable high contrast mode option.

Custom instructions

CW now supports configuring repo-wide custom instructions via a .github/copilot-instructions.md file, in addition to the existing file location (.github/copilot-workspace/CONTRIBUTING.md). If a repo includes a .github/copilot-instructions.md file, then it will take precedence over .github/copilot-workspace/CONTRIBUTING.md (we don't "merge" the contents if you define both). Otherwise, both files support the exact same set of features and user experience (e.g. the Task panel will show custom instructions as additional context, and external URLs in the instructions will be fetched).

📅 27 September 2024

• Brainstorming
  • Project exploration / learning
  • Solution proposals
  • Asking questions
  • Explaining / reviewing code
• Create new repository
• VS Code: Implement/revise specific files
• File tree filtering
• Plan step filtering
• Improved build/test/run inference
• Plan + implement
• URL context management

Brainstorming

We've introduced a major new CW capability that we're calling "brainstorming" (💡). And it represents such a significant change, that it needs to be described in four distinct parts 🤗

• Project exploration / learning
• Solution proposals
• Asking questions
• Explaining / reviewing code

Note: This feature isn't currently enabled by default. So if you'd like to try it, then enable the Activate brainstorming setting in your Experiments panel.

Project exploration / learning

At its core, CW aspires to be an "AI thought partner" that can enable developers to complete everyday tasks, while learning along the way. And while the Specification panel has successfully helped preview users create thousands of pull requests, it's been clear for a while that we could do a lot better. And in particular, help reduce the activation energy in getting started, even before you've typed a single character.

To that end, when you start a new task in CW, you'll now notice a green Brainstorm button in the Task panel.

If you click it, it will open a new tab (called Brainstorm) and suggest a list of questions that might be relevant for you, in either onboarding to the repository, or learning a bit more about specific behavior/topics (e.g. how to buikd VS Code extensions).

When you click one of these questions, CW will generate an answer to it, using the same repository-wide context that you've already come to know and love 💙

Even cooler, as you select questions, the Suggestion questions list will dynamically update to include new, and potentially interesting questions based on your selections. Kind of like a dynamic search engine for code, that can "push" insights at you, instead of waiting for you to ask ⭐

And as with all things in CW, a generated answer can be edited, regenerated, or deleted. And if you find something especially useful, you can even add it as context to the task, which will inform the subsequent planning/code generation.

When a brainstorming question is added to the task, it will show up in the task via a new section called Ideas from brainstorming. And while it may seem silly, we love this title so much. Why? Because it represents the notion that ideas are the output of brainstorming. And ultimately, we want CW to help you produce new and better ideas 💙

Interestingly enough, this behavior means that you can actually work on tasks with CW, without ever actually typing a task description. You simply perform brainstorming, attach the associated ideas, and then move on to the plan/implementation. However, in order for this to work well, you obviously need to be able to describe your intent or to guide CW in the direction that you want to go. So let's see how that works!

Solution proposals

If you click the Brainstorm button after you've typed a task description, then instead of simply getting a list of suggested questions, CW will actually present you with a proposal for how to solve your task. And this is where things get really fun 😎

When a brainstorming question can result in multiple solutions/parts, then instead of simply answering it, CW will present you with a list of ideas, and allow you to select one, many, or all of them. That way, you can compose your intent by brainstorming with CW, and derive ideas through this collaborative process. Additionally, just like "single answer questions", you can regenerate the question to get new ideas, and then edit/refine them as needed. And as you select ideas, the Suggested questions will dynamically update, in order to provide you a pathway towards other interesting questions, which might be worthy of further brainstorming 🧠

Note: When you open an issue in CW, it will automatically launch the Brainstorm tab, and present you with the same experience as manually entered tasks. In this sense, the default How do I solve this issue? brainstorming question represents an alternative to the Specification panel, but has the benefit of being much more rich and flexible in nature.

Asking questions

While the default brainstorming experience can help you to learn about repositories, and think through solutions for tasks/issues, it's also important that you can ask arbitrary other questions, in your pursuit of learning/task completion. And to solve that, the existing "NL revision bar" (the pretty textbox that let's you revise the plan/code) has now been converted into an "action bar". This bar is now always visible, and when you start a new task or open an issue/repo, it will present you with a new prompt: Ask a question....

When you enter and submit a question, it will launch the Brainstorm tab, and start to generate an answer, which will include multiple ideas if relevant, and allow you to edit/refine it as needed. And again, as you ask new and interesting questions, you can attach those as context for the task, and the Suggested questions list will continue to provide you would potentially interesting follow-ups.

Additionally, questions can be asked at any time. And so while you can ask questions at the start of a task, you can also ask them after planning, impmementing or revising. Which leads up to our next part!

Explaining / reviewing code

After you've implemented a plan, you'll notice two new buttons in the file diff headers (within the Files changed tab), which allow you to enter brainstorming mode in two interesting ways:

1. Explaining the changes that were made to the file
2. Exploring ideas about how to improve the file further

These allow you to extend the learning process into a specific change, and make sure that you fully understand the "what?" and "why?" behind an edit, before you ever send a PR.

Additionally, by being able to brainstorm with CW on a changed file, you can effectively perform a lightweight code review with it, and get some simple follow-up suggestions. Just in case there's anything else worth doing 👍

And as if that wasn't enough...the next section is effectively also an extension of brainstorming. But I felt like this section was getting long enough, so I decided to break it up 😄

Create new repository

You can now easily create new repositories from CW, by visiting the dashboard and clicking the Create new repository button at the bottom of the Recent repositories section.

This will take you into a new session where you can define (or brainstorm!) what you want the new repo to include. And when you finish planning/implementing the code, you can click the Create repository button to create the repository and then commit your changes.

Additionally, if you'd like to create a repository from an existing template (as opposed to a blank repo), then simply click the Choose a repository link from the dashboard, search for the template you want to use (e.g. express starter), and then select it. This will take you into the same "new repo" flow as above, but will display a Template panel with the template's README contents in it. Between the new repo + template repo flow, and the addition of brainstorming, we're excited to see how much we can improve the process of bootstrapping new projects 💙

VS Code: Implement/revise specific files

The CW extension for VS Code now allows you to select specific files in the plan that you'd like to implement (by selecting their respective checkboxes in the Plan view). Additionally, you can now NL-revise specific files as well, by clicking the target icon in their file tab, and then entering the change you'd like to make.

Even cooler, you can NL-revise a file that isn't even part of the plan, and it will be added + revised automatically for you. These two changes match the behavior of the CW web/mobile client, and effectively round out the core iteration/feedback loop within VS Code.

Note: Since this extension is early, we're still not quite ready to publish it to the marketplace. We'll likely do that in the next couple of weeks, but until then, simply hit us up in Discord to grab the latest VSIX 😎

File tree filtering

The integrated file tree now allows filtering it to show only the files that have changed in the session (along with their parent directories). This makes it easier to contextualize the changes being made, through the lens of your repository's folder structure. Additionally, this setting is persisted as part of the session, and so if you toggle it, it will remain filtered whenever you resume working on it later (including from your phone!).

Before filtering	After filtering

Plan step filtering

The Plan panel now allows filtering it to show only the steps that were introduced in the last revision/edit (and their associated files). As a plan grows in size/complexity, this filter can make it alot easier to focus your attention on only the steps that were recently made, and therefore, would benefit from a closer review. This filter builds upon the previously-added blue dots (which indicate an "unseen" plan step), and represent another step towards making plan revision feel much more incremental and easy to follow 💪

Before filtering	After filtering

Improved build/test/run inference

When you click the Build, Test or Run buttons in the integrated terminal, CW will now provide better suggestions for the neccessary shell commands needed to run them. In particular, we now include any Actions workflows, package manifests (e.g. package.json), and the CONTRIBUTING.md file (if it exists) in the context, which allows CW to more properly infer the best way to build/test/run your code.

Plan + implement

After writing/editing a task, you can now generate the plan and implementation in a single step. As opposed to generating the plan, and then clicking the Implement button after its done. For simple/straight-forward tasks, this gives you the option to jump straight to code, and then refine things further from there. And if you notice that the plan isn't quite right while the code is being generated, you can easily cancel, revise the plan, and then re-implement. That way you don't lose any steerability when taking advantage of this shortcut 😎

URL context management

When a task references external URLs (e.g. docs), you can now exclude them from the session context, by clicking their associated trash can icon (within the Additional context section of the Task panel). Behind the scenes, this simply updates the task description by wrapping the selected URL in backticks (so that it's treated as raw markdown). But since a URL might be buried in an issue description/call stack, or could occur multiple times within the task definition, this new button should make it a lot easier to properly manage the context that you want CW to consider 👍

📅 20 September 2024

• Plan commands
• Integrated file tree
• New plan step indicators
• Latest changes filter
• Devcontainer tasks improvements
• VS Code: Planning & implementing
• URL task context
• Cancellation improvements

Plan commands

In addition to adding/editing/deleting code, the Plan can now include terminal commands, whenever they're needed to properly complete a task. For example, if a task requires the use of a new 3rd-party dependency, then instead of editing a package manifest file (e.g. package.json), the plan will now suggest running the appropriate package manager (e.g. npm install). This has the advantage of ensuring you install the latest dependency version, as well as updating any respective lock files.

Like everything else in CW, this new Commands section is fully editable, and so you can take, tweak, or ignore the provided suggestions. However, once you're happy with them, you can simply click the Execute all button, which will spin up the integrated terminal (if needed), run the commands, and then display their status. Any files that are edited as a result of these commands being executed, will then be displayed in the Files changed list, just like if you edited them directly 🙌

Note: This feature isn't currently enabled by default. So if you'd like to give it a try, you'll need to open your avatar menu in the upper-right, select Experiments, and then check the Allow shell command generation in the plan setting.

Integrated file tree

We've replaced the file explorer modal with a new integrated file tree, which is displayed as a right-side panel, and retains all of the same features as before (e.g. file name filtering, change annotations). This has the advantage of allowing you to navigate the repository's files, while simultaneously viewing the task/spec/plan and code. Additionally, when you select a file from the tree, it now opens the file as a tab. This is nice, because you can then immediately perform an NL revision to it, which makes the flow of editing new files extremely simple: filter for it in the tree, open it, then revise it 💙

New plan step indicators

When you perform an NL revision against the plan, new plan steps are now annotated with a blue dot. This is meant to indicate that they are "unseen", and help focus your attention on the net-new changes that were made, as a result of your revision. This experience builds upon the previous change to make plan revision incremental, and we think it makes the overall iteration flow feel a lot more predictable (e.g. you don't have to try to spot what changes CW made based on your request).

In order to prevent these dots from becoming noisy, they're only visible until the next time you 1) edit the plan, or 2) perform a subsequent revision/implementation. That way, they always indicate steps you haven't "seen", and don't accumulate as you further iterate on your session. Additionally, the dots aren't added to plan steps you add/edit yourself. And they don't persist across browser refreshes. That way, they simply represent AI-contributed changes, that were introduced by a just-made revision 👍

Latest changes filter

The Files changed section has a new filter called Latest changes, which allows you to focus on the edits that were made by the most recent NL revision/implementation. This makes it a lot easier to perform iterations, and then immediately see the impact of that change (as opposed to all the changes from the session). And when combined with the new plan step indicators, this makes NL revision a lot nicer, since you can perform a revision, and then quickly spot the resulting change in both the plan and the code.

Devcontainer tasks improvements

When you open the integrated terminal, the Build, Test, Run buttons are now always visible, even if the repo you're working against doesn't define them in a devcontainer.json file. And when you click any of them, CW will generate an AI-suggestion for the appropriate command(s) needed to run them (e.g. npm run compile).

If the command looks right, then you can submit it, which will execute it in the terminal, and then persist it to the devcontainer.json file. You can then include this file in your PR/commit, and then all subsequent runs of that task (either build, test, or run) will be able to use this configured command in a single-click. The nice thing about this flow, is that it makes it easier for every repo to configure their build/test/run commands, without needing to remember how to do it. Simply click the buttons, and then let CW suggest and configure it for you 🚀

VS Code: Planning & implementing

The CW extension for VS Code now allows you to generate, regenerate, revise, and implement the plan. Entirely within the editor 🔥 We still require you to start sessions from the CW web/mobile client, but once you have a task started, you can resume it within VS Code, and perform the most common iteration operations from there.

Note: Since this extension is early, we're still not quite ready to publish it to the marketplace. We'll likely do that in the next couple of weeks, but until them, simply hit us up in Discord to grab the latest VSIX 😎

URL task context

When a task references URLs, they will now be displayed in the Additional context section of the Task panel. This ensures that you're always aware of any external context being considered, and you can control if it needed (e.g. deleting a link that is confusing the plan/etc.).

Note: By default, CW will spider URLs that point at GitHub issues, PRs, and repo files. However, if you want it to spider external web URLs, then you need to enable the Utilize referenced generic web content in analysis setting in the Experiments dialog (underneath your avatar menu).

Cancellation improvements

When a plan or implementation is in-progress, clicking the cancel button should now feel immediate. Additionally, if you cancel a file implementation mid-way, it will now revert the file back to its previous state (before editing it), as opposed to the previous behavior (which marked the file as Cancelled, and looked pretty weird). This is meaningful because when you perform an NL revision, CW automatically updates the plan and then implements it. And in order to make this UX feel delightful, we wanted to make sure you could cancel it at any time, and get the immediate/expected results.

📅 13 September 2024

• VS Code session continuation
• Incremental plan revision
• Improved task context
• New specification UX
• Planned file placeholders
• Branch switching
• Whitespace changes

VS Code session continuation

We're introducing a new VS Code extension, which allows you to resume CW sessions within your editor. This allows you to start tasks from the CW web app/PWA, and after feeling good about the implementation, finish the task from the comfort of your fully-configured dev environment (e.g. using your favorite extensions, color theme, keybindings, etc.) 🤗

Additionally, this extension allows you to debug and run arbitrary client/desktop projects (e.g. mobile apps, Chrome extensions, etc.), without needing to push/pull the session's code to an intermediate branch. This works because the VS Code extension supports bi-directional file syncing with the CW service/web client. And so as you make changes in one client, they're immediately available in the other. Collectively, this allows you to start and finish work from whichever client is most convenient 😎

Note: This extension is very early, and therefore, we're not publishing it to the VS Code marketplace just yet. So if you'd like to give it a try and send us feedback, hit us up on the GitHub Next Discord server and we'll send you the VSIX.

Incremental plan revision

When you perform a NL revision (using the pretty input bar at the bottom 💙), the plan is now updated incrementally, as opposed to being completely regenerated. This not only makes it faster to perform iterations, but it also makes it clearer what did and didn't change as a result of your request. To get a sense for how much nicer this feels, check out the following demo 😻

Improved task context

The Task panel now includes an Additional context footer, which is visible when you open an issue (that has comments), or when you're working on a project that includes repository-wide instructions (e.g. a .github/copilot-workspace/CONTRIBUTING.md file).

This is helpful, because it provides visibility into the external context that will be taken into account when analyzing/planning your task. Additionally, it lets you better predict and control the outcome of your session. For example, if you see a Repository instructions context item, then you can click it and immediately see the contents of the file (e.g. so you can know what it defines). And if you're working on an issue, that has comments you don't want included (e.g. becuase they're just "conversational noise"), then you can click the trash can icon next to them, and remove them consideration.

New specification UX

In order to simplify the CW workflow, we're removing the Specification panel from the timeline, and introducing it as optional context to the Task. That way, if your task description already defines the sufficient details for your intent, then you can jump straight to planning. However, if you'd like CW to help expand/ellaborate/explore on your description, then you can ask it to add a spec, and then treat that as additional input to the plan 🚀 (along with any comments and repo-wide instructions).

Since this is a noticeable change, we're initially introducing it as an opt-in setting, which you can enable via the Move specficiation to task panel option in the Experiments dialog. When enabled, you'll see an Add specification button in the Additional context section of the Task panel. When you click that, it will generate the spec as usual, and then display a Specification entry in the context section for the task. If you click this, it will open the spec as a file tab, which let's you edit, revise, or regenerate the content. But with a much nicer, and full-screen view ⭐

Planned file placeholders

After a plan has been generated, the Files changed section now immediately displays placeholders for all of the to-be-implemented files. This helps clarify the state you're in (i.e. there are files that are "planned", but not implemented), and creates a stronger association between the plan and the code.

Additionally, the new Planned placeholders contain a delete icon, which let's you quickly delete a file from the plan. This is useful when using CW on mobile, and you want to delete a file from the implementation, without needing to switch back to the timeline view in order to do it.

Branch switching

You can now easily start a CW session against a new branch, by clicking the branch name label in the header bar. This will bring up a dialog with the list of all active branches, and when selected, starts a new task which targets that branch.

Whitespace changes

By default, whitespace changes are now visible within the file diff editors. This makes it easier to spot when Copilot (or you 😄) make any unintended changes to formatting, and can prevent any surprises after creating a PR. And if you'd like to turn this off (e.g. because a file has a lot of "whitespace churn"), you can click the settings icon in the Files changed section, and then select Ignore whitespace changes.

📅 30 August 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Multi-file revision - You can now select multiple files in the Files changed section, and perform an NL revision against them all. This makes it easier to make changes against multiple files, but in a very precise way (e.g. updating an implementation + associated tests, modifying a UI component and the places it's consumed).

  

  To use it, simply click the target icon (in the file header) for all of the files you'd lke to revise. You can then type your intent, and when submitted, all selected files will begin updating their code based on your request.

• File tabs - You can now open a file in a full-screen tab, in order to view its contents more easily. This compliments the existing "stacked diffs" view (which is useful for gaining a high-level overview of the changes), and allows you to simultaneously browse a file, while also reading the spec/plan and/or using the terminal (which wasn't possible using the file explorer modal).

  

  To use it, simply click the arrow icon in a file diff's header, which will open that file in a new tab. Additionally, if you click a file link in the task/spec/plan panels, or select the Open file menu item for a file in the plan, then the selected file will now open in a tab (as opposed to the file explorer modal).

  

  Even cooler: the list of open files, and the currently active tab, are persisted as part of your session. So when you resume a session later, or share a session with others, the workspace will be in exactly the same place that you left it 💙 Check out this example to see what we mean.

• URLs in repo-wide instructions - You can now include URLs in a repo-wide instruction file (.github/copilot-workspace/CONTRIBUTING.md), and those URLs will be fetched and included in the context of the session. This makes it easy to augment your repo instructions with documentation, or other reference materials, that can help inform all tasks/issues performed against it.

• Issue comments - The Issue panel now displays how many comments the issue has (if any), and allows you to one-click navigate to them for more details. Copilot Workspace has always included issue comments as context for a session, but this change makes it easier to have visibility into when comments exist (since they may impact CW's understanding of the task).

  

• PR improvements - We made a handul of improvements to the flow of creating and updating pull requests from Copilot Workspace. In particular...

  • The option to create a draft PR is now properly disabled, when working against repos that don't support them
  • When you update a PR, we no longer create a PR comment for the changes. We simply push a new commit with the specified (or generated) message
  • If you manually edit a file, we now automatically switch to Unpushed changes mode, when your session is continuing an existing PR (that way the diff view focuses on only net-new changes)

📅 23 August 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Repo-wide instructions - You can now define instructions for Copilot Workspace, that will be automatically applied to every issue or task performed against a repository. This allows you to document policies, suggestions, and other important guidelines that may not be evident from the codebase, but should always be considered.

  For example, the following screenshot shows a Proposed spec that indicates the need to update the CHANGELOG.md, despite the issue not mentioning this requirement. This is because the repo's instructions define that all new features should include an entry in the changelog.

  

  To start using this feature, simply create the following file in your repository: .github/copilot-workspace/CONTRIBUTING.md. As the name suggests, this file acts as contribution guidance for Copilot, and allows you to include any context you think will be helpful 🧠

  By enabling teams to codify common or required guidelines, we hope to reduce mistakes, repetition, and learning barriers for all developers working across a project 🙌

• Terminal assist enhancements - When you encounter an error in the terminal, and Copilot suggestions a change to the spec or plan, that suggestion will now be displayed as an editable diff of the spec/plan. This allows you to quickly understand what the suggestion is, and to easily tweak it as needed, before commiting the change.

  Additionally, if you encounter an error in the terminal that is trivial in nature, and therefore, doesn't justify an update to the spec/plan (e.g. lint errors, typos), then the terminal assistance will now suggest making direct edits to the neccessary files. For example, the following shows the suggestion after running a build, which failed due to a typo. Note that Copilot accurately recommends simply fixing the typo directly (as opposed to updating the plan):

  

• File explorer navigation - The file explorer now supports filtering the tree view by a seach query. As you type, the file tree will be automatically filtered to the matching files, as well as the directories they're contained within. Additionally, directories are now annotated with a green or orange diff icon, to indicate when they contain an added or changed file (respectively). Collectively, these two enhancements should make it a lot easier to navigate codebases within CW (along with the existing support for go-to-definition in the editor).

  

• File search on mobile - You can now easily search the contents of a file on mobile, by tapping the magnifying glass icon in the file's header bar. This has always been possible on desktop, by pressing CMD+F within the editor. But this new button provides the same navigation ability, regardless what device you're currently working from 📱

  

• Sticky toolbar - The Files changed toolbar is now "sticky", which means that it stays visible as you scroll through the implemented files. This ensures that you can expand/collapse the timeline, discard the implementation, or toggle between split/unified diff view, without needing to scroll to the top of the files list to do it (which was obviously pretty annoying!).

  

📅 16 August 2024

Features / Enhancements

• File regeneration - The file toolbar now includes a regenerate button, which allows you to ask CW to "try again" with implementing it. This can be useful if you've revised the plan through NL, and noticed that CW may have missed a detail. Or, if you'd like to ask it to get a bit more "creative" with its interpretation of your intent 🎨

  The Specification and Plan panels already had a regenerate button, and so this change ensures that in addition to editing/revising/undoing, you can regenerate every piece of content within the workspace.

  

• Desktop notification - You can now opt-into getting a system notification whenever a CW session is finished implementing (and the page isn't currently visible). This is useful if you're implementing a large plan, and want to switch to another task while it's running. But then know as soon as it's ready for your review 🏃

  

  To turn this on, simply click your avatar in the upper-right, select Settings, and then check the Show notification after implementing option. Your browser will ask for permission for CW to show notifications, and so make sure to approve that 👍

  

• Improved code search - As a follow-up to supporting web URLs in the task definition, we've introduced an improvement to the way we perform code search, when analyzing the details of your issues/tasks. Depending on the codebase/scenario, this allows us to better identify the right set of files to edit (across the entire repo). And ultimately, can improve the quality/success-rate of CW.

  We're still refining this enhancement. And so for now, you need to opt-into it by clicking the beaker icon in the header bar, and checking the Use code search during task analysis setting. If you get a chance to turn this on, and use CW for a while, then we'd love to hear if you notice any improvements 💙

  

• Task authoring - The Task/Issue panels now match the authoring experience for other markdown editors across GitHub (e.g. issue descriptions, PR comments, etc.). In particular, instead of requiring you to explicitly put the task into "edit mode", or requiring you to explicitly save it in order to preview the content, the panels now provide two tabs that you can seamlessly switch between: Write and Preview.

  

• Issue/PR status - The workspace header now indicates the status of the issue and/or PR associated with a session, by coloring the issue and PR icons based on whether they're open (green) or closed/merged (purple). This can make it easier to spot if you accidentally opened an issue/PR that has already been completed. At which point, you can work on something else! 🙌

  

📅 9 August 2024

External context

When defining a task/issue, you can now include links to external references, and Copilot Workspace will use them as additional context when generating the spec, plan, and code. This makes it a lot easier to express your intent, without having to copy & paste and/or summarize existing content (which can be non-trivial!). In particular, CW supports referencing the following types of assets:

1. Issues / Pull Requests - If you reference an issue/PR by number (e.g. #43) or URL, then CW will take into account it's description and comments. Additionally, if you link to a specific issue/PR comment, then CW will focus it's attention on just that one. This allows you to use an existing discussion/feedback as context, or work on "umbrella issues" that aggregate a set of sub-tasks together.

2. Repository files - If you reference the URL of a file in a GitHub repository (that you have access to), then CW will include that in its set of prioritized references. Additionally, you can include a link to a specific line (example) or range of lines in a file (example), in order to focus CW on that exact code. This allows you to use existing code as a source of inspiration (e.g. "Implement an auth provider just like the one in "), and help steer Copilot in a more precise direction.

3. Arbitrary web URLs - If you reference a public web URL, then CW will fetch and use a summary of its content. Additionally, if you link to a specific fragment of a page (e.g. #link-to-a-specific-heading), then CW will extract and focus on just that section. This allows you to reference documentation/blog posts/tweets/etc. that can provide more recent and/or specific instructions of what you're trying to accomplish 💪

NL revision

After you implement a plan, Copilot Workspace now displays a natural language revision bar at the bottom of the Files changed section. This allows you to update the plan in complex and arbitrary ways, while remaining focused on reviewing the changes.

Additionally, if you'd like to revise a specific file, you can click the bullseye icon in the file's header, which will put the NL revision bar into "scoped file" mode.

Both of these changes are part of a larger theme to elevate/simplify the ability to iterate through natural language. And you can expect to see more improvements in this space in the coming weeks 👍

Terminal repair improvements

CW's terminal assistance can now perform updates to the plan, when you encounter an error that requires a code change. This can be helpful when a build/test/lint action fails, and you want Copilot to suggest a fix. While this capability is still early (and evolving!), we're excited to make steady progress towards a better workflow for automatically addressing errors.

Exit path improvements

When you create a PR/branch/repo, CW no longer generates a commit description by default. That way you can decide if you'd like Copilot to write a message for you, or if you'd prefer to craft your own 💙

Additionally, when you create a PR for a session that's associated with an issue, the PR dialog now includes a checkbox that allows you to indicate whether the code changes fix the issue or not. When checked, CW will insert a Fixes #<number into the issue description. Otherwise, it will insert a Related to #<number> (which is what it did previously).

SVG preview

When you implement or open a *.svg file, you can now preview a rendered version of its contents, by clicking the eyeball icon in its header. We previously introduced preview support for Markdown, and plan to continue adding support for other file formats in the coming weeks (HTML? 🤔)

Sessions + Settings

The user menu (that you get to by clicking your avatar in the upper-right) now includes two new items:

• Your sessions - This navigates you to the CW dashboard, so you can see your recent/bookmarked/completed sessions. We got feedback that folks weren't discovering the dashboard, and so we wanted to make this a bit more discoverable (since it's super useful!)

  

• Settings - This opens a dialog with some optional user settings that can be enabled/disabled. To start, this dialog includes the existing options to automatically start a Codespace on session start/implement. But we also introduced a new setting called Collapse timeline on implement, which as the name implies, allows you to automatically collapse the left-side panel after implementing.

  When paired with the new NL revision bar, this setting allows you to enter a sort of "zen mode" for Copilot Workspace, where once you're happy with the plan, you can focus your entire screen on reviewing and revising the code 🚀

  

Renamed files

Renamed files are now collapsed by default in the Files changed section. This makes it easier to focus your attention on new and changed code, while simply seeing the presence of renamed or deleted files. If a file is both renamed + changed, then it won't be collapsed post-implement, so you can properly review its changes.

Dark mode editor

The code editor is now properly themed for users with a dark mode system setting. The editor's background was previously a medium greyish color, and now it's black 🖤

Usage quota increase

Due to popular demand, we've increased the daily usage quota again. That way, the folks that are using CW for many tasks every day, can keep sending us amazing feedback 🙏

📅 2 August 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Terminal error assistance - When you run a command in the terminal, and it fails (!), the lightbulb button will now turn red. This indicates that Copilot Workspace is aware of the error, and is ready to help you fix it 💪

  
  

  If you click on the lightbulb in this state, the terminal assistance UI will pop-up, and automatically generate a suggestion for how to address the issue. If the suggestion looks right, you can one-click accept it. Otherwise, you can refine the help instructions, or tweak the generated terminal command, to steer Copilot in the right direction.

  

  This experience can help you perform project and environment setup, correct your usage of CLI tools (seriously, who can remember all these args?), and even suggest modifications to the spec/plan. Over the coming weeks, we'll continue refining this capability even further, to ensure that debugging and repairing build/test/etc. errors is as simple and delightful as possible 🙌

• Recent repositories - When you visit the Copilot Workspace dashboard, the Recent tab now displays a section at the top called Recent repositories. This provides a list of your five most recently-active repos, and allows you to start a new task for them in a single click. When paired with the CW PWA, this makes it simple to begin/resume work using Copilot Workspace, without needing to create an issue, or search for the desired repo 🚀

  

• Implementation panel re-design - The Implementation panel has been removed from the timeline, in favor of three UX enhancements, which dramatically improve the usability of CW on mobile and in fullscreen-mode:

  1. The "exith path" button has been moved to the upper-right corner of the workspace toolbar. This ensures that it's clear how to complete a task, regardless what state your workspace is in 👍

     

  2. While an implementation is in-progress, the status indicator and stop button are now displayed at the bottom of the Files changed section. This ensures you can see/control the implementation at any-time, as opposed to just when you have the timeline opened + scrolled to the bottom.

     

  3. The "discard all files" button has been moved to the left of the Split | Unified toggle in the Files changed section. That way, if you're reviewing code, and decide you want to try another approach, you can clear the session directly from there.

     

• List organization - The spec and plan can now be fully re-organized, by clicking on the ... menu for any sub-step, and choosing Move item up or Move item down. This won't impact the code generation in any way, and so you can feel free to order things however feels best/most intuitive to you. In particular, this can be useful when sharing a session with others, and you want to curate the spec/plan a bit for improved readability.

  

• Switching branches - If you're working on a CW session, and realize you'd like to build upon a different branch, you can now click the New Session button, and select Select a branch. This will display a dialog with a list of the current repo's branches, and let you start a new ad-hoc task for the specified branch.

  

• Terminal status - The terminal icon (in the workspace toolbar) now displays a green dot whenever the terminal is connected. Now that CW auto-start's the terminal (for repos that don't include a devcontainer.json), this allows you to quickly see when the terminal is ready, so you can jump into it and start building/running code.

  

• Experiments - We periodically ship new features that are off by-default, since they're not quite ready for prime-time usage. And to make it easier to discover these features, and know when you have them on, the workspace toolbar now displays a beaker icon, that indicates how many experiments you have enabled.

  

  When clicked, this button brings up the Experiments dialog, which let's you try out our cutting-edge features (and then hopefully send us feedback!) 🔥

  

• Docs/changelog - To make it easier to access the CW docs and changelog (the thing you're currently reading!), the user menu (in the workspace toolbar) now includes links for the User manual and What's new?. That way you can keep up with the fun, and see how we're addressing your feedback. But without needing to remember/search for random URLs in our GitHub Next Discord 🤗

  

📅 26 July 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Session continuation
• Proceed to plan (task->plan)
• Optimized file viewers
• Spec/plan/code improvements

Session continuation

When you create a repository/PR/branch from Copilot Workspace, we now provide two options for your next step:

• Starting an entirely new session (for the current repo/PR/branch)
• Continuing to iterate on the current session (this is the new part! 🙌)

                         Just created a PR? Let's stay in the flow!

This is a significant change to the CW workflow, and has the following key benefits:

• It allows you to share context across multiple commits, and consolidate logically-related changes within a single session
• It allows you to correct post-commit mistakes or address feedback, without having to create follow-up CW sessions

In this sense, a CW session has evolved from being associated with a single commit, and is now logically associated with a branch, or chain of commits (for trunk-based development). This not only provides a lot more flexibility, but also, reflects the way that many developers wanted to use it. So we're excited to hear feedback!

   A single CW session that lead to a PR + follow-up commit

To make this multi-commit workflow even more fun...when you implement changes to a CW session (that was already pushed to a repo/PR/branch), you'll see a new All | Unchanged toggle button in the toolbar. This allows you to easily see the changes for the most recent iteration, as opposed to the changes for the overall session (which could now include multiple commits).

For example, if you have a CW session that you created a PR from, you could address PR feedback in that same session, quickly review those exact changes, and then confidently push an update to the PR (after running/testing it in the terminal!)

   Reviewing a readme update to an existing PR/CW session

---

Proceed to plan (task->plan)

When you start an ad-hoc task (opening a repo/PR/branch in CW, as opposed to an issue), you can now choose to skip generating a spec, and proceed directly to planning 🏃

This helps CW feel a lot more optimized, for tasks that fall into the following categories:

• They're simple or precise in nature (e.g. Rename the readme and translate it into German)
• They're very well-defined/articulated (e.g. you write a paragraph/bullet points for the desired behavior)

In these cases, you likely don't need a summary of the task (because you just wrote it!), or help fleshing out the success criteria (because it's simple!). And in those instances, CW should now feel a lot faster, more lightweight, and easier to iterate 🚀

When you proceed directly to the plan, the Specification panel will still be displayed in the timeline, but it will be greyed out. And if you review the plan/code, and realize that you actually do need a bit more help investigating the task, then you can expand the Task panel and select Add Specification. That way the spec feels helpful if/when needed, but not required 👍

The CW timeline, with the Specification panel skipped, as we went from task->plan

When you open an issue, CW continues to generate a spec as the first step, and doesn't give you the option to skip it. This is because issues are much more complex and ambiguous in practice, and therefore, they commonly benefit from the summarization/contextualization/thinking that the spec panel offers.

---

Optimized file viewers

When you implement a plan, the Files changed list now includes two key improvements, to make it easier to review the code:

• Added/renamed files are displayed using a code editor (as opposed to a diff editor)
• Deleted files are automatically collapsed, so they don't clutter up the list

These changes also make it easier to edit code post-implement, since it's a lot nicer to write code in a standard editor vs. a diff editor. Especially with the help of CW's integrated language services + Copilot completions 💙

   Reviewing added/deleted files in a more natural/distraction-free way

---

Spec/plan/code improvements

We made numerous improvements to the way we generate the spec and plan, which should increase the quality a bit, for both larger repos and complex tasks. Additionally, we improved our code generation, so that it shouldn't delete unrelated code/comments when implementing a task.

Finally, after enabling speculative decoding a few weeks ago, we've confirmed that it's stable enough to be on by default, and we've removed it from the Experiments panel. That said, we really appreciate all the great feedback from preview users, as we've continued to focus on improving the perf and quality of code generation 🙏

📅 12 July 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Markdown preview - The file explorer and file diffs now include support for previewing Markdown content. This allows you to easily visualize how formatting with look (e.g. tables), when you're adding or editing docs.

  To use it, simply click the eye icon in the toolbar above the file. And over time, you can expect to see this icon appear for other file types, as we expand the preview support 🚀

  

• Codespaces auto-start - We now automatically spin up a Codespace when you click the Implement button, as opposed to waiting until you open the terminal. This has the benefit of providing language services when reviewing code (e.g. hover info, error squiggles, go-to-definition), and making the terminal available as soon as you need it (e.g. to build the code after it's done implementing).

  

  The little green dot indicates that you're session is enriched with language services, thanks to the auto-started Codespaces!

  Note: If a repo includes a devcontainer.json file, we don't currently auto-start the Codespace. We'll be adding support for that soon, but in the meantime, you can enable this by checking the Spin up a codespace on start of implement setting in the Experiments panel.

• Increased usage quota - In order to enable power users to get the most out of Copilot Workspace, we've doubled the daily usage quota. We were seeing lots of cases of folks hitting their limit, and so we're excited to unblock that, and let to AI-assisted creativity flow more freely 💙

Bug Fixes

• Exit path dialogs - When you attempt to create a PR/branch/commit/repo from a Copilot Workspace session, the modal dialog will no longer automatically close when you click outside of it. That way you don't lose any work (e.g. a PR description) as a result of an accidental click/drag.

• File explorer view toggle - When you open a file in the file explorer, the Code / Diff toggle button now works correctly for added/edited files.

• Invalid markdown in tasks - If an issue/task includes invalid markdown for image references, Copilot Workspace is now resilient to that, and will simply render it as a broken image.

• Resuming interrupted sessions - If you accidentally close a session while it's in the middle of generating the spec, Copilot Workspace will now automatically resume spec generation once you re-open it.

📅 3 July 2024

This week's release is all about performance and quality. So when you use Copilot Workspace, things should feel noticeably faster overall. And also, a little bit smarter 😎

For example...	Before today	After today
Generating the code for this session	~9.5 minutes	~2 minutes (-7.5 minutes 🔥)
Generating the plan for this session	~33 seconds	~15 seconds (>2x speed-up)
Generating the spec for this session	~15 seconds	~6 seconds (>2x speed-up)

What contributed to these gains?

• We migrated to GPT-4o, and made numerous improvements to spec/plan/code generation
• We introduced "speculative decoding" for code generation (read below for details)

Speculative decoding

We previously shipped an experiment called "speculative decoding", which provided a 2x+ speed-up on code generation. That experiment is now on by default, and is a key part of the boost you'll see when implementing a plan.

With this enabled, Copilot Workspace now predicts the "edit locations" within a file, as opposed to re-generating every line. This allows us to retain the stability of whole-file generation, but with a dramatic improvement in performance.

Additionally, to indicate when Copilot Workspace is predicting the next edit location (vs. editing code), the progress bar will display a "barber pole" overlay. That way, you know when it's thinking hard on your behalf ❤️

File copy operations

When a task/issue includes the need to copy a file, this should now work as expected. Previously, Copilot Workspace would incorrectly attempt to rename the existing file. And now, it will translate the copy operation into the creation of a new file, that includes a step for copying the contents of the originating file (along with any subsequent edits).

For example, here's a sample session that copies a file, and translates it's console.log messages into Japanese:

📅 28 June 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Copilot completions and language services in embedded editors - Support for rich language features (hover info, error squiggles, go-to-definition) and Copilot completions are now enabled by default. This was previously released as an opt-in experiment, and thanks to the amazing feedback from preview users, it's now ready for general usage 🎉

  

  A few things to note:

  • Copilot completions are supported in all languages, but the other editor features currently only support JS/TS, Python, and Go. We'll be introducing support for other languages soon, and so let us know which ones you'd like to see next 💪

  • The rich editing features are only enabled when a terminal/Codespace is attached to your session. So if you'd like to use them, either manually open the integrated terminal, or enable one of the Spin up a codespace... experiments. And in either case, you can tell that rich editing is "activated", because you'll see a cool little green dot in the upper-right of the Files changed section.

    

  • In addition to stabilizing the existing feature set, we've also expanded the editing experience quite a bit. So read on for details about that!

• Auto-completion / signature help - When editing code within Copilot Workspace, you'll now see auto-completion everywhere you'd expect. And also, when you call functions, you'll see the editor overlay that describes its signature details. This, along with the existing Copilot completions support, should make it a lot nicer to make any last minute tweaks, before sending out a PR 🚀

  

• Error squiggles on mobile - When using Copilot Workspace from your phone, you can now place your cursor over an error squiggle in an editor, and correctly see the details of the issue. With this in place, we now have full parity for rich editing, between desktop and mobile 📱

  

• Go-to-definition for external dependencies - When you perform a go-to-definition on a 3rd-party API (e.g. an NPM package), it will now correctly navigate to the corresponding type definition. That way, you can inspect the API surface for any dependencies, without needing to leave the workspace.

  

  Note: This will only work once you've restored app dependencies from the terminal and/or if your repo includes a devcontainer.json file that does this automatically.

• Copilot in Codespaces - When you open a session in a Codespace, the Copilot and Copilot Chat extensions are now automatically installed for you. That way, you can edit along with Copilot in the workspace, and then seamlessly continue doing that in a Codespace, without any additional setup.

  

• Renaming files - Copilot Workspace now understands when a file is being renamed, but doesn't need to be edited. And in those cases, it can perform the rename immediately, as opposed to AI-generating it's contents. This results in a big perf boost for plans that include simple renames, and is a follow-up to the optimizations we made for deleting files.

  

• Session management - You can now delete a session from within the workspace, by clicking the New Session button and selecting Delete Session. This was already possible from the dashboard, but this new entrypoint makes it easier to clean up sessions once you're done with them.

  

📅 14 June 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Terminal command suggestions - In order to make it easier to use the terminal (including from your phone!), you can now describe an action you’d like to perform (e.g. Build the project, List all markdown files in the src directory), and let Copilot suggest the corresponding shell command. And just like everything else in Copilot Workspace, you can edit or regenerate the suggestion, to make sure you get exactly what you’re looking for 🚀

  

• Devcontainer tasks - To make it simpler to run common/repeated terminal commands, a repository can now define tasks in its devcontainer.json file, which configure the shell commands needed to perform a build, test, and/or run against it (example).

  When defined, these tasks will appear as buttons in the integrated terminal, so that validating code changes becomes as simple as a couple clicks. Even cooler, you can edit the devcontainer.json file directly within Copilot Workspace, and any new/changed tasks will appear immediately 💪

  

• Copilot completions on mobile - When manually editing code from your phone, you can now make use of Copilot completions, thanks to a new Accept button which appears anytime a Copilot suggestion is visible in the editor.

  

  Note: In order to make use of Copilot completions, you need to check the Enable Copilot and language services in editors option in the Experiments dialog (which is available when clicking on your avatar in the upper-right).

• Simplified branch tasks - When you start a task from the GitHub repository page, Copilot Workspace will now respect the currently selected branch. That way, you can easily perform any tasks, against any branch 🔥

  

Perf Improvements

• Speculative decoding - We're working to improve the feedback loop when implementing a plan. And as part of that, we've introduced a new experiment that should speed up code generation by ~2.5x (!!). We'll be turning this on by default soon, but for now, you can try it out by checking the Use speculative decoding to speed up implement option in the Experiments dialog (which you can access by clicking your avatar in the upper-right).

• New Session - When you click the New Session button from the Copilot Workspace dashboard, your MRU list of repositories should show up immediately, since we now pre-fetch/cache them in advance. That way, starting a new session is 2-3 faster 🏎️

📅 24 May 2024

Features / Enhancements

• PWA support - You can now install Copilot Workspace on your desktop or mobile home screen, and have a more native app-like feel (e.g. no browser chrome, no accidental back navigations when swiping left, better keyboard handling). This also makes it easier to jump back into in-progress tasks, from any of your devices 💙

  To get started, simply navigate to the Copilot Workspace dashboard, and then either click the Install Copilot Workspace button in the navigation bar (on desktop), or click Add to Home Screen from the share menu (on mobile).

  
    Working on a task in a beautiful Copilot Workspace PWA from your desktop 😻

    
    Copilot Workspace nestled comfortably on the iOS dock

• Organizing the plan - You can now re-order the plan by moving files up or down in the list. And since the Files changed list is also sorted by the plan, this allows you to better organize sessions for both self-review, but also, to better curate them when sharing sessions with others (like this!).

  When you actually implement the plan, Copilot Workspace will determine the most logical order to make edits in (e.g. creating shared functions/components, before editing their consumers). So you can feel free to organize the plan in whichever way feels best to you, and rest assured that Copilot will continue to do the right thing 🙌

  
    Updating the order of files in a plan

• Enhanced social preview image - When you share a Copilot Workspace session on Slack/Teams/Twitter/SMS/etc. (like this one!) the preview now displays a customized image for the repo and task it’s associated with (for public repos). It also now includes a warp speed background, since clicking on the link is sort of like transporting you into another space 🚀 (and of course, it just looks cool...)

  
  Sharing a Copilot Workspace session with someone in Slack

Bug Fixes

• Manually adding files to the plan - The Add file to plan dialog now correctly detects existing file paths in all cases, and makes it easy to add/edit/rename/delete files from the plan.

• File syncing for long-ish running sessions - The bi-directional file syncer (that syncs changes between the Workspace and the terminal) now properly syncs files for sessions, when the HEAD of the branch has since progressed. This makes it easier to work on Workspace sessions throughout the day, or across days, regardless how active the target branch is 💪

📅 17 May 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Revise the spec, plan, and code with natural language - In addition to making direct edits to the specification or plan, you can now provide natural language instructions for how you'd like to revise them (e.g. Add tests for this change). This same capability is also available on the header for changed files, which allows you to revise code based on a specific instruction (e.g. Move the logging logic into a separate function), in addition to editing it manually.

  

• Copilot completions and language services in embedded editors - We've shipped an initial experience for getting hover info, error squiggles, go-to-definition, and Copilot completions directly from the embedded editors in Copilot Workspace. That way you can quickly spot issues to fix, easily navigate the code changes, or make manual edits, while receiving the Copilot assistance you know and love 💙

  

  Here's a few things to note about this enhancement:

  • It isn't on by default, and so if you want to try it, you need to click on your avatar in the upper right, select Experiments and then check the Enable Copilot and language services in editors setting.
  • The language services (hover info, error squiggles, go-to-definition) currently only support JavaScript/TypeScript, Python and Go. But more languages are coming!
  • Support for Copilot completions requires an active Copilot subscription. If you don't have one, then you simply won't see "ghost text" in the editor, but you can still use the language services described above.

• UX layout persistence - When you collapse changed files and/or minimize the timeline, that UX state is now properly persisted for the session. That way, when you return to a session later, you can pick up exactly where you left off. Or if you share a snapshot with someone else, you can curate the UX to look exactly how you want them to see it 🚀

  

• Redesigned progress indicator for file implementation - When a file is currently being implemented, we now display a progress bar underneath it to better visualize the status of the code generation. Additionally, when an existing file is being edited, we now properly display the delta of code changes that were added.

  

  

• Easier code review on mobile - When viewing a multi-file session on a mobile device, you can now click an implemented file to view the changes in a full-screen editor, and then easily page between the other files that were edited.

  

• The "topic" now renders markdown - The question/task that is displayed at the top of the Specification panel is now rendered properly when it includes markdown. In particular, it's common for this to include backticks when the task definition refers to a symbol using them.

  

• Add manually edited files to the plan - In addition to generating code changes with AI, Copilot Workspace allows you to manually edit files through its file explorer and/or the integrated terminal. And in order to make it easier to include these manually edited files in the plan (e.g. so you could do further AI-assisted iteration on them), they now include a + button in their header bar, which let's you one-click add them to the plan.

  

• Share links now include the repo and title in their preview - If you share a session link with someone via Twitter, Slack, Teams, SMS, etc. the preview that is displayed to them will now properly include the repository that the session is associated with, and the title of the session. That way, it's a little bit clearer what you're sharing, before they actually click it.

  

• Improved status messages for panels - Whenever you generate/regenerate/revise the spec/plan, or implement files, those steps now display more helpful status messages.

📅 9 May 2024

Features / Enhancements

• Support for very large repositories - The first release of Copilot Workspace only worked up to limited repository size. These limitations are now largely lifted.

• Copilot Workspace will now process "delete" operations efficiently - Copilot Workspace will now process 'delete' operations more promptly, without making any unnecessary model invocations.

• Color the Issue and Pull Request panel icons based on their state - When opening an issue or pull request within Copilot Workspace, we'll now indicate the state of the issue/PR, using the same colors as GitHub.com: open (green), completed/merged (purple), closed (red), and closed as not planned (grey). That way, the status of the issue/PR will be immediately clear 👍

  

  Opening an issue that's closed as completed

  

  Opening a pull request that's been closed

Bug Fixes

• Fix session reload for any session not on default branch of repository. A user reported that Copilot Workspace could not reload sessions if they were associated with a non-default branch of a repository. This is now fixed.

• Fix virtual keyboard overlaying editor. A fix was made for mobile where the virtual keyboard was obscuring some of the file editor.

• Fix scroll to implementation. "Scroll to implementation" for a step of the plan was not working as expected. This is now fixed.

• Numerous mobile layout fixes. Many subtle but important fixes have been made to layout and interaction on mobile devices.

📅 29 April 2024

Initial release! 🚀