GitHub Copilot Extensions are integrations that expand the capabilities of Copilot, allowing developers to interact with external tools and services directly within Copilot Chat in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, GitHub.com, and GitHub Mobile.

Copilot Extensions are available to GitHub users, organizations, and enterprises with supported GitHub and Copilot plan types and the Copilot Extensions policy enabled. Extensions can be used with a Copilot Pro plan, which is available to individual GitHub users. Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise plan customers must have a GitHub plan type that supports installing and using GitHub Apps at the organization level. Copilot Extensions are not supported on GitHub Enterprise Server.

Copilot Extensions are free to build. Most listed extensions on the GitHub Marketplace are also free to use. A GitHub Copilot license of any type is required to use and build extensions. Some extensions may require a paid plan for the publisher’s service.

Copilot Extensions in the GitHub Marketplace are built by third parties and may vary in quality. GitHub reviews any extensions published to the Marketplace, and all publishers must be Verified Creators. Publishers can share security and transparency to display on their extension’s listing page. Data like permissions is verified by GitHub, while other info is self-attested. We encourage customers to conduct their own security reviews and only install extensions from publishers that they trust.

Yes. Enterprises and organizations can build private GitHub Copilot Extensions for internal use. These extensions are only visible and usable by the enterprise or organization that created them. Private extensions must be installed at the organization level, but can be created at the enterprise or organization level. They allow for the integration of proprietary tools, databases and workflows. Details on getting started can be found in the documentation.

At a minimum, when using a Copilot Extension your GitHub user ID and the contents of your chat history with a specific extension and general threads are shared with the extension author. Each extension will not have access to your thread history with other extensions.

Additional data can be shared depending on the permissions required for a specific extension. Users and organization owners must explicitly authorize any permissions before completing installation, which may include context from the GitHub organization account or its repositories.

Copilot Extensions depend on our ecosystem of builders and users. The platform will continue to evolve to better support our community. Users should expect ongoing improvements and potential changes. Extensions may have varying levels of functionality and stability. We encourage users to provide feedback to help improve the platform and individual extensions.

GitHub App Copilot Extensions work across multiple platforms (VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, GitHub.com and GitHub Mobile) and run server-side. GitHub App Extensibility is maintained and supported by GitHub’s product and support teams.

VS Code Chat Participants (sometimes referred to as Copilot Extensions as well) provide a similar end-user experience, but they’re specific only to the VS Code environment and they run locally. They integrate more deeply with VS Code features and APIs. They offer more flexibility for individual developers. Copilot-enabled VS Code Chat Participants are maintained and supported by the VS Code team.