Getting started with prompts for Copilot Chat on GitHub

Copilot Chat responds differently depending on where you are on GitHub. The following examples show the kinds of questions you can ask in each context.

General software questions

tell me about nodejs web server frameworks

how can I create an Express app

what is the best way to update an npm package

Repository questions

Navigate to a repository to ask about its purpose, structure, code, or history. Copilot Chat grounds its answers in the actual files and symbols in the repository, so you can get a high-level overview and then ask follow-up questions within the same context.

What is the main purpose of this repo?

Give me an overview of how this project is structured.

How do I set up and run this project locally?

Where is rate limiting implemented in our API?

What was the last merged PR by USERNAME

File and code questions

Open a file or select specific lines, then ask about them.

Explain this file.

How could I improve this code?

Write a unit test for this method.

Pull request questions

Navigate to a pull request to ask about changes, reviews, or failing workflows.

Summarize the changes in this PR.

What's the purpose of this file?

Tell me why this job failed

What did Copilot change in this PR and why?

What did Copilot validate before opening this PR?

Debugging questions

Navigate to a failed workflow run, a pull request with a failing check, or paste a stack trace to get help diagnosing and fixing the problem.

Why did this workflow run fail?

Explain this stack trace and suggest a fix.

Which change in this PR most likely caused the failing test?

Security alert questions

Navigate to a code scanning, secret scanning, or Dependabot alert to ask about it.

How would I fix this alert?

Which line of code is this alert referencing?

Issue, discussion, and commit questions

Navigate to any issue, discussion, or commit and ask Copilot Chat about it.

What is the purpose of this issue?

What is the expected output of this commit?