Nutshell Series

GitHub Copilot Commands and Shortcuts – Nutshell Guide

Manjunath

GitHub Copilot is more than just code suggestions — it’s a full productivity assistant for developers. Whether you’re using Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, or JetBrains, knowing the right commands and shortcuts can save you time and effort.

Here’s a complete cheat sheet with all the essential GitHub Copilot commands, keyboard shortcuts, and slash commands you need to boost your workflow.

💡 Copilot Suggestions Shortcuts

These shortcuts help you quickly accept, reject, or browse through Copilot’s code completions:

  • Tab → Accept Copilot suggestion
  • Alt + . → Show next suggestion
  • Alt + , → Show previous suggestion

💬 Copilot Chat Shortcuts

Copilot Chat is like having an AI coding buddy inside your IDE. Use these to start conversations faster:

  • Ctrl + Alt + I / Ctrl + Cmd + I → Open Copilot Chat panel
  • Ctrl + I / Cmd + I → Start inline chat directly in the editor
  • Ctrl + Shift + Alt + L → Open Quick Chat / Agent mode
  • Alt + / → Open inline chat in Visual Studio

🚀 Copilot Slash Commands

Slash commands give you quick, powerful ways to ask Copilot to do specific tasks:

  • /fix → Automatically fix compiler or linting errors
  • /explain → Get an explanation of the selected code
  • /tests → Generate unit tests (supports frameworks like Jest, xUnit, etc.)
  • /docs → Add or improve documentation comments
  • /generate → Generate a code snippet for a described task
  • /optimize → Suggest performance and efficiency improvements

🛠️ Chat Helpers

Make your chat conversations with Copilot smarter by using these helpers:

  • @ → Tag a specialist agent (e.g., @workspace for project-wide context)
  • # → Reference a file or a specific line (e.g., #app.js:24)

⚙️ Repository Configuration

Want Copilot to follow your project’s rules and style guide? You can configure it at the repo level:

  • .github/copilot-instructions.md → Add custom instructions so Copilot knows how to follow your coding style and conventions

🔥 Pro Tips for Developers

  • Type / in Copilot Chat to see all available slash commands
  • Use @workspace to ask questions about your entire project, not just the current file
  • Keep your README.md and copilot-instructions.md updated — Copilot uses them to understand your project better

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