GitHub Copilot features per IDE

This repository collects release notes for GitHub Copilot features across different IDEs. Scheduled GitHub Actions workflows collect the release notes from the official IDEs and IDE extensions/plugins and store these in json files.

Usage

The repository contains a Skill that can be used along with GitHub Copilot or another AI coding assistant to query the collected release notes data. For example, you can ask:

/find-feature Next Edit Suggestions (NES)

It would then return a summary of the release notes for that feature across all IDEs, including which IDE versions support it. The repository data is updated daily by scheduled GitHub Actions workflows, so you can be confident that the information is up to date. Pull the latest changes in this repository before asking the Skill so you have the latest data.

Website

The repository hosts a searchable feature matrix on GitHub Pages at https://FokkoVeegens.github.io/github-copilot-ide-features/.

How it works

• Enter a keyword (minimum 5 characters) to search across Copilot feature mentions in all IDEs.
• Results are shown as one row per IDE release that mentions the feature (IDE, version, date released, feature description), grouped by IDE and sorted oldest first. IDEs with no matching release notes are collapsed into a single "N/A" row at the bottom.
• Clicking on a version badge links to the official release notes.
• The Only launch announcements filter (enabled by default) hides mentions that describe incremental changes or fixes. Uncheck the box to see all mentions.

Running the site locally

In VS Code, use Run and Debug with the Open Website launch configuration, or run the Run website locally task from Tasks: Run Task. This installs Python requirements, rebuilds the search index, and serves the site at http://localhost:8000/.

To run the same steps manually:

# Install Python dependencies
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

# Build the search index
python -m scripts.build_search_index --output site

# Serve locally
python -m http.server -d site 8000

# Visit http://localhost:8000/

The site is a pure client-side application: HTML, CSS, and ES module JavaScript with no external dependencies. It loads a pre-built search index at page load and performs all searching in the browser.

Repository layout

config/ides.yml              – single source of truth for IDE configuration
data/<ide>/<version>.json    – one JSON file per release; presence = already processed
data/<ide>/index.json        – auto-generated index of all versions with metadata
scripts/run.py               – CLI entry point
scripts/build_search_index.py – Build search index for the GitHub Pages site
scripts/common/              – shared utilities (config, HTTP, extraction, I/O)
scripts/fetchers/            – one module per IDE
site/                        – static GitHub Pages site (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
site/images/                 – IDE logo images shown next to each IDE row
site/responsive.spec.mjs     – Playwright browser tests for the responsive layout
tests/                       – pytest test suite

Fetcher endpoints are configured centrally in config/ides.yml, including source_url and any per-IDE URL templates or canonical plugin URLs needed by a fetcher.

Index files

Each IDE directory contains an automatically-generated index.json file that provides a quick reference to all available versions. The index contains an array of objects with the following properties. Releases whose source does not provide an exact date use null and are listed after dated releases.

[
  {
    "version": "1.122.0",
    "release_date": "2026-05-28",
    "filename": "1.122.0.json"
  }
]

The index is sorted by release_date in descending order (newest first) and is regenerated each time the fetch workflow runs.

Supported IDEs

ID	Name
eclipse	Copilot for Eclipse
copilot-cli	GitHub Copilot CLI
jetbrains	GitHub Copilot for JetBrains
xcode	GitHub Copilot for Xcode
vim-neovim	GitHub Copilot for Vim/Neovim
vs-code	GitHub Copilot for VS Code
visual-studio-2022	Visual Studio 2022
visual-studio-2026	Visual Studio 2026

Running a fetcher locally

pip install -r requirements.txt

# Fetch (or update) release notes for a single IDE:
python -m scripts.run --ide xcode

# Set GITHUB_TOKEN for higher API rate limits (recommended):
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_... python -m scripts.run --ide eclipse

Re-running the same command is safe: existing files are never overwritten (idempotent).

GitHub token scopes

The fetchers that call the GitHub REST API (Eclipse, GitHub Copilot CLI) only read public repositories, so no specific OAuth scopes are required. Xcode (feature matrix + public CHANGELOG.md) and Vim/Neovim scrape public docs and do not require authentication.

Token type	Required scopes
Personal access token (classic)	(none — leave all scopes unchecked)
Fine-grained PAT	Public Repositories (read-only) access (the default)
GitHub Actions GITHUB_TOKEN	Default permissions are sufficient; no extra configuration needed

Without a token the API allows 60 requests per hour per IP address. Any authenticated token raises this to 5,000 requests per hour.

Running the tests

pip install -r requirements.txt
ruff check scripts tests
pytest
node --test site/search.test.mjs

# Browser tests (responsive layout)
npm ci
npx playwright install chromium
npx playwright test

Python: Both ruff and pytest must pass before committing.
JavaScript: All Node.js tests in site/search.test.mjs must pass.
Browser: The Playwright tests in site/responsive.spec.mjs render the real page in Chromium and verify the table layout on wide viewports and the stacked card layout below 600px. GitHub Actions CI runs the same test suite on pushes to main, pull requests, and manual dispatches. It also runs python -m compileall scripts tests as a fast syntax check before pytest.

Output format

Each file under data/<ide>/ follows the JSON schema defined in scripts/common/schema.json. Key fields:

Field	Description
ide	IDE identifier matching config/ides.yml
version	Normalised version string (e.g. 0.16.0)
release_date	ISO-8601 date (YYYY-MM-DD), or null when the source has no exact date
body_markdown	Full release notes as Markdown
copilot_mentions	Lines from the notes matching a Copilot/AI heuristic
source	How the data was obtained (api, feed, html, …)
neovim_era	Vim/Neovim-only era key (for example neovim-latest, neovim-2024)

GitHub Pages configuration

The website is deployed from GitHub Actions to GitHub Pages. To configure it for a new repository:

1. Settings → Pages → Set Build and deployment → Source = GitHub Actions (not "Deploy from a branch")
2. Settings → Environments → Confirm github-pages environment exists; optionally restrict to main branch
3. Settings → Actions → General → Ensure workflow permissions allow OIDC (usually default; no change needed)
4. First deploy: Manually trigger the deploy-pages.yml workflow via Actions or wait for the next push to main affecting data/, site/, scripts/, or config/ides.yml
5. Site URL: https://<owner>.github.io/<repo-name>/ — all relative URLs in the site use ./ to work correctly from the sub-path