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Code faster and better with GitHub Copilot’s new features in Visual Studio

We have introduced two new powerful features to the latest Visual Studio Copilot Chat extension: slash commands (/) that allow you to direct Copilot to perform specific tasks, and context Variables (#) that allow you to specify a file for Copilot to focus its answer on. These features are available on the latest Chat extension that is compatible with Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8 and higher.

Slash Commands

Slash commands are special commands that you can use in chat to receive targeted assistance, including explanations, documentation, test creation, and various other forms of support related to your code. For example, you can use:

  • /doc to add a documentation comment
  • /explain to explain the code
  • /fix to propose a fix for the problems in the selected code
  • /generate to generate code to answer your question
  • /help to get help with Copilot Chat
  • /optimize to analyze and improve the running time of the selected code
  • /tests to create unit tests for the selected code

VS Code Slash Commands

Context Variables

The context variables feature enables you to add files from your solution into your questions using the # symbol. By referencing a file in this way, you allow Copilot to access the content of the file and provide more targeted answers about it. For example, you can ask “How does the #file:’Main.cs’ file work?” or “What is the purpose of the #file:’Calculator.cs’ file?” and get relevant answers from Copilot Chat. You can add multiple files to one question.

VS Code Context Variables

Besides these main features, you can also explore our other exciting new preview features

Join the discussion within GitHub Community.

GitHub Actions: macOS 14 (Sonoma) is now available

The macOS 14 runner image is now available for GitHub hosted runners. Workflows executed on this image will run exclusively on the 3 vCPU M1 runner announced earlier today. To use the runner, simply update the runs-on: key in your YAML workflow file to macos-14, macos-14-xlarge, or macos-14-large.

The macOS 12 runner image will remain latest until migration of the latest YAML workflow label to macOS 14 in Q2 FY24 (April – June 2024). While macOS 13 is now generally available under the macos-13 label, this image will not be migrated to latest. Following this announcement, macOS 11 runner image will begin deprecation immediately with retirement expected to complete by June 2024.

The full list of software available for all macOS runner images can be found here. If there is software you require that is not installed on the image, please create an issue in the runner-images repository.

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GitHub Actions: Introducing the new M1 macOS runner available to open source!

Today, GitHub is excited to announce the launch of a new M1 macOS runner! This runner is available for all plans, free in public repositories, and eligible to consume included free plan minutes in private repositories. The new runner executes Actions workflows with a 3 vCPU, 7 GB RAM, and 14 GB of storage VM, which provides the latest Mac hardware Actions has to offer. The new runner operates exclusively on macOS 14 and to use it, simply update the runs-on key in your YAML workflow file to macos-14.

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