Quickstart for automating with GitHub Copilot CLI

Overview

You can use GitHub Copilot CLI to programmatically run Copilot prompts. There are two main ways to do this:

• Run a Copilot CLI prompt directly from your terminal.
• Write a script or automation that leverages Copilot CLI.

This guide will walk you through a simple use case for each option.

Run a prompt from the command line

When you want to pass Copilot CLI a prompt without initiating an interactive session, use the -p flag.

copilot -p "Summarize what this file does: ./README.md"

copilot -p "Summarize what this file does: ./README.md"

Any prompt you would type in an interactive session works with -p.

Use Copilot CLI in a script

The real power of programmatic mode comes from writing scripts to automate AI-powered tasks. Within a script, you can generate the prompt, or replace parts of a prompt with dynamic content, and then capture the output or pass it to another part of the script.

Let's create a script that finds all files larger than 10 MB in the current directory, uses Copilot CLI to generate a brief description of each file, and then emails a summary report.

1. In your repository, create a new file called find_large_files.sh and add the following content.

   Bash

   #!/bin/bash
   # Find files over 10 MB, use Copilot CLI to describe them, and email a summary
   
   EMAIL_TO="user@example.com"
   SUBJECT="Large file found"
   BODY=""
   
   while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
       size=$(du -h "$file" | cut -f1)
       description=$(copilot -p "Describe this file briefly: $file" -s 2>/dev/null)
       BODY+="File: $file"$'\n'"Size: $size"$'\n'"Description:     $description"$'\n\n'
   done < <(find . -type f -size +10M -print0)
   
   if [ -z "$BODY" ]; then
       echo "No files over 10MB found."
       exit 0
   fi
   
   echo -e "To: $EMAIL_TO\nSubject: $SUBJECT\n\n$BODY" | sendmail "$EMAIL_TO"
   echo "Email sent to $EMAIL_TO with large file details."
   

2. Make the script executable.

   Shell

   chmod +x find_large_files.sh
   

3. Run the script.

   Shell

   ./find_large_files.sh
   

This script leverages Copilot CLI to generate descriptions of the files you are searching for, so you can quickly understand the contents of large files without opening them.

You can also automatically trigger these scripts in response to events, such as a new file being added to a directory, or on a schedule using cron jobs or CI/CD pipelines.

Further reading

• Running GitHub Copilot CLI programmatically
• Automating tasks with Copilot CLI and GitHub Actions
• GitHub Copilot CLI programmatic reference