How to Set Up GitHub Copilot for GitHub Enterprise Teams and Organizations

What’s GitHub Copilot?

(skip if you just want the set up instructions)

🤖 GitHub Copilot is an AI tool for code suggestion while programming.

🔍 It analyzes your code and context to generate efficient and correct suggestions.

⏰ It saves time and helps avoid common programming mistakes.

💡 It suggests alternative solutions to problems.

💻 It is compatible with multiple programming languages.

❗️However, it’s not a replacement for human expertise and judgment. (obvs)

🔎 Code generated by the tool should be carefully reviewed and tested to ensure it meets specific requirements.

Background Story:

(can also skip)

GitHub CoPilot wasn’t available for our enterprise GitHub account at first, so we considered using individual accounts, and signed up for a single account to try it out, but then GitHub released it for teams — widely available Feb 14, 2023, so here’s how you get it set up and activate for your team to get the licenses through the GitHub company account instead of having to set up and charge individual accounts — Matt

Important to mention — This article is specific to GitHub Copilot for Business + GitHub Enterprise Account (Cloud).

Important Highlights:

• Copilot has separate product-specific terms
• Copilot costs extra ($19/seat at the time of writing this)
• GitHub Copilot for Individuals and GitHub Copilot for Business are different types of subscriptions.
• Use of GitHub Copilot depends on your organization structure, permissions, etc. so be sure you are complying with all of your org’s policies and that you have access.

Set up

There’s two places to find your GitHub copilot settings. Follow these steps to get your team up and running.

Update Enterprise Account Settings

1. Go to your enterprise account settings https://github.com/enterprises/[your enterprise name]/settings/copilot
2. Choose whether or not to suggest based on public code

3. Choose whether to Allow for all organizations or only specific organizations.

Update Organization Account Settings

This is where you specify which individuals/teams get a license.

1. Go to your Organization Account > Settings > Copilot
2. By default, it’s Disabled, you can purchase for all members, or select only specific teams/users.

Once enabled, each member/team you specified can use it in their code editor, for example, VSCode:

VSCode

1. Install the VSCode Extension Name: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.copilot
2. Each developer must log in with the GitHub account associated with your organization and allow access to the extension by logging in.
3. Update settings (optional) for different languages/file types.

Now code suggestions show in the editor automatically:

Example Django Permission Class Suggestion

https://docs.github.com/en/copilot for more details.

Upcoming

I plan on posting on how to use GitHub copilot for code comments and commit messages and a more advanced guide for Installing and Configuring VSCode. Will update the article when available — subscribe and 👏 this post if it helps, and to get future updates.

✌️ Matt