GitHub Copilot in VS Code settings reference
This article lists the configuration settings for GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code. For general information about working with settings in VS Code, refer toUser and workspace settings.
The team is continuously working on improving Copilot in VS Code and adding new features. Some features are still experimental. Try them out and share your feedback inour issues. Get more info about thefeature lifecycle in VS Code.
Tip
If you don't yet have a Copilot subscription, you can use Copilot for free by signing up for theCopilot Free plan and get a monthly limit of completions and chat interactions.
General settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| chat.commandCenter.enabled Controls whether to show the Copilot menu in the VS Code title bar. | true |
| workbench.commandPalette.experimental.askChatLocation(Experimental) Controls where the Command Palette should ask chat questions. | "chatView" |
| search.searchView.semanticSearchBehavior(Preview) Configure when to run semantic search in the Search view: manually (default), when no text search results are found, or always. | "manual" |
| search.searchView.keywordSuggestions(Preview) Controls whether to show keyword suggestions in the Search view. | false |
| workbench.settings.showAISearchToggle(Experimental) Enable searching settings with AI in the Settings editor. | true |
Code editing settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.editor.enableCodeActions Controls if Copilot commands are shown as Code Actions when available. | true |
| github.copilot.renameSuggestions.triggerAutomatically Generate symbol renaming suggestions. | true |
| github.copilot.enable Enable or disable code completions for specifiedlanguages. | { "*": true, "plaintext": false, "markdown": false, "scminput": false } |
| github.copilot.nextEditSuggestions.enabled Enablesnext edit suggestions (NES). | true |
| editor.inlineSuggest.edits.allowCodeShifting Configure if NES is able to shift your code to show a suggestion. | "always" |
| editor.inlineSuggest.edits.renderSideBySide Configure if NES can show larger suggestions side-by-side if possible, or if Copilot NES should always show larger suggestions below the relevant code. | "auto" |
Chat settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.chat.localeOverride Specify a locale for chat responses, such as en orfr. | "auto" |
| github.copilot.chat.useProjectTemplates Use relevant GitHub projects as starter projects when using /new. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.scopeSelection Whether to prompt for a specific symbol scope if you use /explain and the active editor has no selection. | false |
| github.copilot.chat.terminalChatLocation Controls where chat queries from the terminal should be opened. | "chatView" |
| chat.detectParticipant.enabled Enable chat participant detection in the Chat view. | true |
| chat.editor.fontFamily Font family in chat codeblocks. | "default" |
| chat.editor.fontSize Font size in pixels in chat codeblocks. | 14 |
| chat.editor.fontWeight Font weight in chat codeblocks. | "default" |
| chat.editor.lineHeight Line height in pixels in chat codeblocks. | 0 |
| chat.editor.wordWrap Toggle line wrapping in chat codeblocks. | "off" |
| chat.editing.confirmEditRequestRemoval Ask for confirmation before undoing an edit. | true |
| chat.editing.confirmEditRequestRetry Ask for confirmation before performing a redo of the last edit. | true |
| chat.editing.autoAcceptDelay Configure a delay after which suggested edits are automatically accepted, use zero to disable auto-accept. | 0 |
| github.copilot.chat.codesearch.enabled(Preview) When using #codebase in the prompt, Copilot automatically discovers relevant files to be edited. | false |
| chat.editRequests(Experimental) Enable or disableediting previous chat requests. | "inline" |
| github.copilot.chat.edits.suggestRelatedFilesFromGitHistory(Experimental) Suggest related files from git history in Copilot Edits. | true |
| chat.sendElementsToChat.enabled(Experimental) Enable sending elements from the Simple Browser to the chat view as context. | true |
Agent mode settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| chat.agent.enabled Enable or disable agent mode (requires VS Code 1.99 or later). | true |
| chat.agent.maxRequests Maximum number of requests that Copilot can make in agent mode. | 25 |
| github.copilot.chat.agent.autoFix Automatically diagnose and fix issues in the generated code changes. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.agent.runTasks Run workspace tasks when using agent mode. | true |
| chat.mcp.enabled Enable Model Context Protocol (MCP) support in VS Code. This enables adding tools from MCP servers in agent mode. | true |
| chat.tools.autoApprove(Experimental) Automatically approve all tools. | false |
| github.copilot.chat.newWorkspaceCreation.enabled(Experimental) Enable the agent mode tool for scaffolding a new workspace in chat. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.agent.thinkingTool(Experimental) Enable the thinking tool in agent mode. | false |
| github.copilot.chat.agent.terminal.allowList(Experimental) A list of terminal commands that are allowed to berun in agent mode without confirmation. | { "echo": true, "cd": true, "ls": true, "cat": true, "pwd": true, "Write-Host": true, "Set-Location": true, "Get-ChildItem": true, "Get-Content": true, "Get-Location": true } |
| github.copilot.chat.agent.terminal.denyList(Experimental) A list of terminal commands that are not allowed to berun in agent mode without confirmation. | { "rm": true, "rmdir": true, "del": true, "kill": true, "curl": true, "wget": true, "eval": true, "chmod": true, "chown": true, "Remove-Item": true } |
Inline chat settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| inlineChat.finishOnType Finish an editor inline chat session when typing outside of changed regions. | false |
| inlineChat.holdToSpeech Holding the editor inline chat keyboard shortcut (⌘I (Windows, LinuxCtrl+I)) automatically enables speech recognition. | true |
| editor.inlineSuggest.syntaxHighlightingEnabled Show syntax highlighting for code completions. | true |
| inlineChat.lineEmptyHint(Experimental) Show a hint for editor inline chat on an empty line. | false |
| inlineChat.lineNaturalLanguageHint(Experimental) Trigger editor inline chat as soon as a line mostly consists of words. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.editor.temporalContext.enabled(Experimental) Include recently viewed and edited files in the context for editor inline chat. | false |
Code review settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.chat.reviewSelection.enabled(Preview) Enable code review with AI for an editor text selection. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.reviewSelection.instructions(Preview) Custom instructions that are added to requests for reviewing the current editor selection with AI. | [] |
Custom instructions settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.chat.codeGeneration.useInstructionFiles Automatically add custom instructions from .github/copilot-instructions.md to chat requests. | true |
| chat.instructionsFilesLocations(Experimental) Locations to search for custom instructions files. Relative paths are resolved from the root folder(s) of your workspace. Supports glob patterns for file paths. | { ".github/instructions": true } |
| github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions(Experimental) Custom instructions for generating commit messages with AI. | [] |
| github.copilot.chat.pullRequestDescriptionGeneration.instructions(Experimental) Custom instructions for generating pull request titles and descriptions with AI. | [] |
Reusable prompt files settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| chat.promptFiles(Experimental) Enable or disable reusable prompt files. | true |
| chat.promptFilesLocations(Experimental) Locations to search for prompt files. Relative paths are resolved from the root folder(s) of your workspace. Supports glob patterns for file paths. | { ".github/prompts": true } |
Chat mode settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| chat.modeFilesLocations(Experimental) Locations to search for chat mode files. Relative paths are resolved from the root folder(s) of your workspace. Supports glob patterns for file paths. | { ".github/chatmodes": true } |
Debugging settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.chat.startDebugging.enabled(Preview) Enables the experimental /startDebugging intent in the Chat view to generate debugging configuration. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.copilotDebugCommand.enabled(Preview) Enables the copilot-debug terminal command. | true |
Testing settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| github.copilot.chat.generateTests.codeLens(Experimental) ShowGenerate tests code lens for symbols that are not covered by current test coverage information. | false |
| github.copilot.chat.setupTests.enabled(Experimental) Enables the experimental /setupTests intent and prompting in/tests generation. | true |
Notebook settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| notebook.experimental.generate(Experimental) Enable theGenerate action to create code cells with notebook inline chat. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.edits.newNotebook.enabled(Experimental) Enable the notebook tool in edit mode to create a new notebook file. | true |
| github.copilot.chat.notebook.followCellExecution.enabled(Experimental) Show the currently executing cell in the editor. | false |
Accessibility settings
| Setting and Description | Default |
|---|---|
| inlineChat.accessibleDiffView Whether the Inline Chat also renders an accessible diff viewer for its changes. | "auto" |
| accessibility.signals.chatRequestSent Plays a signal - sound (audio cue) and/or announcement (alert) - when a chat request is made. | { "sound": "auto", "announcement": "auto" } |
| accessibility.signals.chatResponseReceived Plays a sound / audio cue when the response has been received. | { "sound": "auto" } |
| accessibility.signals.chatEditModifiedFile Plays a sound / audio cue when the file has been modified by chat edits. | { "sound": "auto" } |
| accessibility.signals.chatUserActionRequired Plays a sound / audio cue when the user needs to take an action in chat. | { "sound": "auto", "announcement": "auto" } |
| accessibility.signals.lineHasInlineSuggestion Plays a sound / audio cue when the cursor is on a line that has an inline suggestion. | { "sound": "auto" } |
| accessibility.signals.nextEditSuggestion Plays a sound / audio cue when a next edit suggestion is available. | { "sound": "auto", "announcement": "auto" } |
| accessibility.verbosity.inlineChat Provide information about how to access the inline editor chat accessibility help menu and alert with hints that describe how to use the feature when the input is focused. | true |
| accessibility.verbosity.inlineCompletions Provide information about how to access the inline completions hover and Accessible View. | true |
| accessibility.verbosity.panelChat Provide information about how to access the chat help menu when the chat input is focused. | true |
| accessibility.voice.keywordActivation Controls whether the keyword phrase 'Hey Code' is recognized to start a voice chat session. | "off" |
| accessibility.voice.autoSynthesize Controls whether a textual response should automatically be read out aloud when speech was used as input. | "off" |
| accessibility.voice.speechTimeout The duration in milliseconds that voice speech recognition remains active after you stop speaking. | 1200 |
Related resources
07/09/2025