Asking a side question in GitHub Copilot CLI
During a CLI session, you can ask Copilot a question without adding the prompt, or the answer, to your conversation history.
During an interactive Copilot CLI session, you can use the /ask slash command to ask a quick side question and see the answer in a separate dialog. Copilot uses the current conversation as context when it is available, but cannot use tools to answer the question.
You can use /ask while Copilot is currently working on a task. The question and answer are not added to the conversation history, so you should use a normal prompt instead if you want them to become part of the conversation.
The /ask command is not available for remote sessions.
Asking a quick question
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In a local interactive session, enter
/askfollowed by your question.For example:
/ask What does the previous response mean by "idempotent"?
/btw is an alias for /ask. You can use either command to ask a side question.
Copilot answers your question in a dialog, separate from the main conversation.
- To cancel an answer that is still being generated, or to dismiss a completed answer, press Esc.
The dialog does not have an input field for follow-up questions. To ask another question, dismiss the dialog and enter another /ask YOUR-QUESTION command.