Copilot Workspace Feedback

[ThisIsKirsch]

Looking for Product Feedback

The wait is over! 🎉 We’re thrilled to share that the technical preview of GitHub Copilot Workspace is now available to all paying Copilot customers. 🚀

We've loved all the feedback given to use during the technical preview and pubic preview, and we're thrilled to be getting such amazing feedback from you. Previously we were collecting feedback on Discord. Moving forward we'll be using this discussions post as the one-stop shop for all user feedback!

If you have any feedback, bugs to report, or comments in general regarding Copilot Workspace please leave it here!

[ykundesu]

I am using VisualStudio.
Currently only supported in VSCode and browser, will it be supported in VisualStudio in the future?

[Raushang4]

> How can I use GitHub Copilot features effectively if I primarily work in Visual Studio?

Multi-line Suggestions: Press Ctrl + Enter (Windows) or Cmd + Enter (Mac)
Best Practices for Effective Use

Break Down Tasks: Use comments or short code snippets to guide Copilot’s focus.
Review Suggestions: Always review the AI-generated code for correctness, security, and adherence to your project’s coding standards.
Combine with IntelliSense: Use Visual Studio's native IntelliSense alongside Copilot for an enhanced coding experience.

Tips to Use Copilot Effectively

Leverage Key Shortcuts:
Familiarize yourself with Copilot-specific shortcuts in Visual Studio, such as:

Alt + \ or Ctrl + Space: Manually trigger suggestions.
Ctrl + Enter: Open the panel for alternative or detailed suggestions.
Provide Clear Context:
Copilot generates better suggestions when you:

Write clear, well-structured code.
Add meaningful comments describing what you need.
Combine with IntelliSense:
Use Visual Studio’s IntelliSense alongside Copilot for comprehensive support.

[Julieisbaka]

Its really annoying to use when it just goes back to the github website when you click certain things

[mengeworkman]

I tried to create a simple Python script that prints "Hello World" in the browser version of workspace and I get a blank screen.

[prabhank]

I too had seen "This site can't be reached" for a while, after 5 minutes it started working.

[arafat-fullstackdev]

Try these fixes:

Check Internet – Ensure stable connection.
Disable VPN/Proxy – Might be blocking access.
Check Firewall/Antivirus – Temporarily disable and retry.
Try Another Browser – Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.
Use Incognito Mode – Avoid extension conflicts.
Flush DNS Cache – Run ipconfig /flushdns (Windows) or sudo dscacheutil -flushcache (Mac).
Switch Network – Try another Wi-Fi or mobile data.

If still not working, test on another device. 🚀

[beingminimal]

@ThisIsKirsch When we are going to have a model selection in CW? any ETA?

[skylar-anderson]

@beingminimal Making CW multi-model is a top priority for us. Stay tuned 👀

[beingminimal]

@beingminimal Making CW multi-model is a top priority for us. Stay tuned 👀

ok thanks.

[PierrunoYT]

Would love to get Higher Rate Limits

[derKosi]

+1

replacing Random with RandomNumberGenerator.Create() (in C#, yeah i know) and putting it in its own service and changing 35 files was to much for the rate limit. So Sad.

I even would throw my own ressources (azure) against it or setup a local env (ollama + api key) to properly test this.
It seems to be able to generate solutions for Issues generated by sonarqube and such, and I would like to compare this against Devin for example.

[Ali-Razmjoo]

I couldn't finish brainstorming on an issue and faced a rate limit (yesterday and today). I didn't even get to the coding today; that's challenging for me to try this feature again while it's forcing me to wait one hour.

Error generating answer to question: You have exceeded your usage quota per hour. Copilot Workspace is a limited preview and we'd like everyone to have a chance to try it out. Please try again later. If you hit this condition regularly, please contact us via the feedback links.

[ciresnave]

+1. I hit my hourly quota limit twice today and then hit my daily quota limit. Mind you, I was working to have Copilot Workspace help me flesh out a somewhat complex project...but I'm still hoping they raise the quotas soon.

[rotev]

Hello from Workspace 👋 Sorry for the late reply.

For somewhat large repos, we've seen frequent quota limits being hit. We're actively working on optimizations for these cases.

As for quotas being exceeded due to frequent usage, this is a common request from the community. I've passed it along to our product team.

[benny-yamagata]

I literally asked for one change to my repo across 7 files... hit my hourly quota after the initial code generation. This is not great.

[wmeints]

I find that reordering files in the plan is difficult when you have a large list of files. I would love to be able to have some form of dedicated function to reorder files in the plan.

[dylanatsmith]

@wmeints Can you tell us more about why you reorder files and what order you put them in?

For example, are you grouping files and their tests, grouping all files together and all tests together, etc?

[wmeints]

I noticed that sometimes copilot workspace has the order reversed and produces the wrong result. For example, when the test file is generated before the implementation, the implementation generated is a lot worse. Now when I reorder the files, the results are better.

In most cases the order of the files is correct, however, when you start to iterate in the session using brainstorming or by typing revisions, new files are added at the end of the list that need to be at the top or somewhere in the middle. By then the list is getting pretty long so it becomes harder to reorder the files.

[dylanatsmith]

That’s helpful context, thanks @wmeints. We’ll look into this.

[beingminimal]

@ThisIsKirsch Does CW going to support custom Ai agents? like in case if we want to run ai agents we have built with langgraph in CW then is it going to be supported?

[beingminimal]

@ThisIsKirsch CW will have canvas like GPT4o-canvas to iterate?

[MarzLars]

Hi,
I've been playing around for some hours and I noticed that doing multiple revisions of one ''task-session''--not sure how to name it--will essentially make co-pilot behave a bit weirdly and not complete some of the instructed tasks. My fix for this has so far been to start new task sessions and make brainstorms etc. for the current features I want to improve--and begin new separate task sessions if I want some new features for my application.

From my understanding it seems to be intended to start a new "Task" in your workspace when copilot has completed what was initially prompted. Hence, I think it would be nice with some UI that promotes this workflow. See example images below

Current UI:

My suggestion would be to include a button at the bottom of the side bar, which makes it possible to start new Tasks, straight from the sidebar, when copilot has implemented the initial task prompt:

Suggested UI-draft:

***When button is clicked, you get prompted to go to a new task page and start the process again, or something along those lines. ***

But I really love it so far! Kudos!

[six7]

@MarzLars would you say you always want to be in control of when to start a new task like depicted? How would you feel if CW automatically started new tasks (as follow-ups to the original with proper UI affordances) if it thinks your request doesnt fit into the current?

[MarzLars]

@six7 I will mostly want to always be in control, but it would be nice if CW comes with a pop-up or notifaction if it notices the request diverges too much--you get the option to put that request into a new task or keep going with your current session. 😛

[lehotskysamuel]

Any plans to integrate CW with pycharm / jetbrains IDEs?

[skylar-anderson]

No specific plans as of yet, but additional IDE support is something we are considering.

[Mistic92]

Should be higher priority

[elijahrs-gh]

I would appreciate if the Command part, has knowledge of the actual scripts, so you can have it install the necessary dependencies without having to specify them one-by-one.

[SkywardSyntax]

Hey, I was wondering if CW will still be receiving weekly updates while in public preview?

[skylar-anderson]

We will continue shipping updates to CW as we build towards public preview :) Expect changelogs to land every 2 weeks.

[bripkens]

Something we frequently do is to have tasks like "Implement a new thing X that is similar to Y. To figure out what to do, search for usages of Y.". So far it seems like CoPilot workspace cannot understand this. Especially not within a monorepo. Example of where one would do this:

• plugin systems: Spinning up a new plugin (requiring new files/directories/constant files/registrations etc. – lots of boilerplate)
• adding additional telemetry: Define a new metric that is similar to an already existing one.

[skylar-anderson]

Have you tried using Brainstorming to extract a description of current system behaviors e.g. "similar to Y"? Brainstorming lets you query the current codebase to understand existing behaviors which can then be injected back into the task description in order to inform the plan.

[shadow9130]

Yeah

[pethers]

Hi,

Really enjoyed using the workspace, had some success cleaning up javadoc on my open source project https://github.com/Hack23/cia .

Javadoc improvements Pull request.
Hack23/cia#6751
Hack23/cia#6744
Hack23/cia#6742
Hack23/cia#6740

Works pretty well, result https://hack23.github.io/cia/apidocs/com.hack23.cia.web/module-summary.html better module descriptions was empty before.

Some issues I had.

• Don't find all relevant files to update, seems to only scan small subset of project.
• Regulary hit "You have exceeded your usage quota per hour. " even with first brainstorm off the day.
• The base branch requires all commits to be signed, can the pull request generated be signed ? Issue already exist at Add possibility to generate signed commits githubnext/copilot-workspace-user-manual#65

Would be great if could scan the whole project and detect and modify large set of files better.

Example want to fix "Desc." descriptions in UI since I was lazy when I wrote ot https://copilot-workspace.githubnext.com/Hack23/cia?shareId=f93d776f-206d-4445-bf64-8fae04951c51 . Would be great to fix it everywhere :) Now limited to one package Hack23/cia#6753 or do it for multiple areas.

Like the workflow, easy to learn and great support for generating pull request.

Best regards

[skylar-anderson]

Thanks for sharing @pethers. It's awesome to see your success with CW.

Context selection is a critical piece of CW. We're actively working on some new ideas to improve the way CW selects files for your task.

We're also working to increase capacity as we scale CW towards a public preview so hopefully you aren't hitting quota limits as frequently going forward.

Keep an eye out on our changelog for continued improvements! :)

[gaieges]

Generally a huge fan of the copilot workspace, cant wait to see where it will go. Also can't wait til I'm not rate limited and can use it more extensively!

Some feedback I had while creating:

• The "ideas" concept seems powerful but a bit confusing in how it works - could be a little more intuitive
  • I'd like for IT to ask me clarifying questions to aid the plan and code steps (rather than selecting questions to ask itself)
  • I'd then like to override certain plan steps with an idea in text form and not have to deal with the ui aspects (ie via the input field at the bottom - "make sure that we implement it via X approach")
• I would want some more granularity over "steps" to add to "tasks" from a question. For example in the answer to the question of "how should the ui look", I may want to pull out just "color X" and "rounded edges" from the list of 10 items returned.
• It would be great to be able to do parts of this in the PR, if you detect something wrong after PR generation. Ie make some suggestions as you normally would via comments and have the PR updated automatically from the same contextual LLM (some tools already that do this, but you could do it better)

[skylar-anderson]

Love this feedback. Your points about improving ideas are fantastic. I'll raise these points with the team as we shape the next iterations.

[gaieges]

Glad to hear it!

Another note regarding this feedback approach- it's a bit noisy to get emails about everyone else's input. I'll be muting this thread, so ping me directly if you have any additional questions.

[tc23]

Have you experienced difficulties with the current PR editing workflow?

[davidecelano]

I've been lookin' around in the project repo and site and I wasn't able to find terms regarding what happens with source code in private/internal repos when granting access to Copilot Workspace: I think it's really relevant for businesses to be sure that their private source code is not shared to train models or provide code snippets/suggestions to the whole Github community

[xbito]

I have a bit of feedback / thoughts regarding the UI. For a bit of context, I am a software engineer that haven't used Github that much before, my previous company was using other products for code and project management. So I'm a bit familiar with Github UIs but I am not entirely comfortable yet.

I might not be offering solutions/alternatives, this is more an expression of my thoughts / first impressions while using the tool. This is my fourth session, and I have done relatively small tasks so far. I started the session from my repo using the Code -> Copilot -> Start task flow.

In this first Interaction I have some mixed indications of what I need to do next:

• On the sidebar under "Write" is what I initially entered as Start task which seems to be editable.
• On the main part of the UI I have the Brainstorm section, which has Add item callouts, and a chat with a set of Suggested questions for the Chat.
• And then we have the Generate plan button.

At that point, as a new user that has not read the documentation because I am really confident about my ability to understand a UI, I am a bit confused what I'm supposed to do next.

This is what I feel the UI is telling me: If I click "Generate plan" it is going to use the input I made in Write to re-generate the Brainstorm. But actually what happens if I change the Task is that a new button/section appears at the top of the Brainstorm content to regenerate it, and I still can hit Generate plan without updating the Brainstorm:

It seems like the intention is for Brainstorms to be updated when the Task changes. There's even this "Outdated" indicator in the "Ideas from brainstorm" thing under the Task textbox once I change the Task. But if I click Generate plan thinking that it would update the Brainstorm it seems to proceed with the original Brainstorm instead. I have to click on Brainstorm or on the Outdated label and then click on that other Update button to update the Brainstorm and then update the Plan. But, also, if I update the Brainstorm there is no indication that the Plan is now Outdated, and that I should click on Update plan rather than on Implement selected files.

Now, if click on one of the "Suggested questions", it seems to replace the content from the original Brainstorm. Turns out that the original one still exists under that hamburger button, but there is no indication that that is what is happening. Why not add another tab beside Brainstorm? Or indicate that will open another "page"? But also, what the Chat-like interface is suggesting to me is that this section is more like a chat-gpt experience, where there is a conversation, not an individual document per question/answer. First thing I thought was: It's not clear why aren't the questions I'm asking added to the "Ideas from brainstorming section" which contains the original, automatically added, "How do I solve this task?" (By the way, maybe it should say we, it is copilot and the user brainstorming together right?)

Once I used the questions I saw the answers give you options, like "Where should the avatar be displayed", it gave me a few options, which I can then "+ Add to task" if I agree. Which then adds something to the list of ideas from brainstorming, but also changes the original "How do I solve this task?" page/answer right?. In particular in the Proposed solution section. Why both places?

There also seem to be questions, like the above one, that is not really giving me the option to specifically select which one I want to add to task, it seems to be an all or nothing rather than options like in others. These seem to be 3 ways to attend to the issue expressed by the question that do not need to be all done. And in this case I can't edit instantly, I have to click on the pencil button to enter edit mode, which is not the case with the original "How do I solve this task?" page.

This whole concept of Suggested questions seem to dance between 2 different purposes, there are some that seem to be questions that may help us further refine the request, like the one about where to display the avatar. But then there are others that seem to be more about the user wanting to learn about something, for example I have a suggestion about Learning about PySide6 for UI development. Should there be a distinction about Questions for refining where we will be given a selection to further refine the task, versus those that are about other related topics?

I have more thoughts but my son just came back from school! Hope you find these reflections (sort of ramble) useful!

[umair-me]

Same here, it was working couple or so weeks ago.

[littlerr]

Imagine you were given two demos by GitHub, boasting how awesome this tool is, so awesome that it isn't covered by a trial license and you have to pay to experiment it, and the first time you use it, it gave you an error message that makes no sense whatsoever, and nobody from GitHub even bothered to reply to anyone in the last 4 days.

[paulvinell]

For me the ENOSPC bug has evolved into a permaspinner

[MatthewSteeples]

Mine does that for a while, and then pops up a generic error: Unexpected error. Please wait and try again.

[paulvinell]

Now it works! Hope this lasts 🤞

[mmitche]

When specifying that I want a set of changes against a different branch, it still attempt to update main.

[thalperi]

I'm new to workspace. I was just recently granted access but I can't seem to get past this first page. In other words, it seems to be forever loading some information but nothing every comes up:

[arafat-fullstackdev]

It looks like GitHub Copilot Workspace is stuck loading repositories, which can happen due to a few common issues. First, ensure you've properly authorized Copilot Workspace on GitHub by checking Authorized Apps and granting it access to your repositories. If you're using any browser extensions like ad blockers or privacy tools, try disabling them or use an incognito window. Also, network issues, VPNs, or strict firewalls can block necessary API requests—switching networks or turning off the VPN might help. Make sure Copilot has access to private repositories if you're using any. Lastly, it could be a temporary issue with GitHub’s servers—check GitHub Status. If none of these work, try another browser or reach out to GitHub support directly.

[thalperi]

[thalperi]

It was necessary to remove 3rd Party Restrictions:

[thalperi]

I think there are some spelling mistakes here in this pop up message "where" and "stared":

I also have no idea what is going on here and why I am getting this message or why syncing is not working.

[JustAGhosT]

Just following instructions. Im hitting this very offten, and then usually move to v0 and Roo, and only return a couple days later, when im starting something new again

[callingmahendra]

Not able to open Terminal, its keep giving me below error

[paulvinell]

Permaspinner again. Can't access service

[k-in]

I'm unable to start Copilot Workspace from the issue page because the button has been replaced with "Code with Copilot Agent Mode." What is the recommended path to start Copilot Workspace?

[Robbbo-T]

hello, any option to increase the daily/Hour tokens quota?

[JustAGhosT]

wiah i could too, so tired of this message:

Error implementing plan: You have exceeded your usage quota per day. Copilot Workspace is a limited preview and we'd like everyone to have a chance to try it out. Please try again later. If you hit this condition regularly, please contact us via the feedback links.

[mvogel-dev]

Please add an option to "Send to VSCode" instead of "Open in VSCode" - it would be ideal to have a way to send the changes to a new git branch locally, and then keep working on them using existing developer workflows.

I would like to have copilot workspace generate changes and then finish the edge cases by hand locally --- and then be able to commit and push them from my local using normal git workflows instead of the current strange "Sync" behavior that circumvents the usual flow. Right now it is still possible to commit and push from local, but there are many popups and warnings that get in the way and unnecessarily interrupt the developer experience.

In other words, please add a setting to Disable Syncing from local to copilot - in which case a "Sync" would be only in one direction From copilot workspace To local vscode. This would support a simpler and more straightforward workflow where copilot workspace can generate code changes across the codebase, and stop there.

---

Here are examples of the popup errors in vscode interrupting the dev experience. Unfortunately, turning off notifications doesn't hide these from popping up either.

[khvn26]

I don't trust such an environment to become a full scale IDE yet, and I'd rather it to be my script notebook/task runner for the time being. I tried asking it to "remove all numeric ids from a json file", and so far regex+my brain outperformed it significantly. My suggestion would be to try and perfect little low risk scenarios such as the above to gradually raise trust to the product.

Or maybe I'm using it wrong.

[SkywardSyntax]

Hey I was wondering why it’s been so long since an update to Copilot Workspace. It’s been pretty consistent and then kind of just stopped. Just was wondering if this product is still being developed.