Instant semantic code search indexing now generally available for GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot now features instant semantic code search indexing, dramatically reducing the time it takes for Copilot to understand and reference your codebase.

What’s changed

Previously, when you wanted GitHub Copilot to reference your repository’s code in its responses, the semantic code search indexing process would take approximately five minutes to complete. With this update, indexing now completes in just a few seconds in most cases, though it may take up to 60 seconds. This means you can get contextually-aware Copilot assistance almost immediately after opening a repository.

Why this matters

Semantic Code Search is one of GitHub Copilot’s most powerful capabilities, enabling GitHub Copilot to:

  • Provide responses specific to your codebase’s architecture and patterns.
  • Reference existing functions, classes, and implementations in your repo.
  • Suggest code that aligns with your project’s style and conventions.
  • Answer questions about your codebase with accurate, context-aware information.

With instant semantic code search indexing, there’s virtually no waiting period between opening a repository and receiving codebase-aware AI assistance, making your development workflow more efficient and interruption-free.

How it works

Semantic code search indexing is automatically triggered when you open GitHub Copilot Chat on github.com. For VS Code users with the GitHub Copilot extension, you can also manually trigger indexing through the Copilot UI if needed.

Availability

This feature is available to all GitHub Copilot users across all tiers, including the free tier. There are no limits on how many repositories can be indexed.

Learn more

For detailed information about repository indexing for GitHub Copilot, check out our documentation.

Join the discussion within GitHub Community.

Updates to Enterprise account navigation now generally available

GitHub Enterprise users will now see a horizontal navigation bar at the top of their enterprise account. This update is designed to improve the user experience by providing a consistent, intuitive navigation structure that mirrors the rest of the GitHub experience.

Screenshot of the new enterprise account navigation

These changes are expected to come to GitHub Enterprise Server customers in release version 3.17.

To learn more about enterprise accounts, read our documentation.

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Refreshed commit details page now generally available

The refreshed commit details page is now generally available!

This improved page lets you view and navigate the changes within a commit with improvements to filtering, commenting, and keyboard navigation.

Screen shot of the new commit details page that shows the metadata about the commit, a file tree showing the three files changed by the commit, diff snippets for each of the changed files, and a floating comment

What’s new 🎉

  • Comment counts in tree: Easily spot files with comments by seeing the number of comments directly in the file tree.
  • Floating comments: Code comments now float on top of the diff to improve readability of the diffs. Click the commenter’s avatar on the right side of the line to open.
  • Instantly switch views: Switch between unified and split views without waiting for the page to reload.
  • Keyboard navigation in diffs: You can now navigate around changed lines in the diff using the up and down keys on your keyboard. A new context menu also makes it easier to comment, copy, and select.
  • Filtering: You can filter changes by file name or extension. Also, the diffs for filtered out files are hidden to help reduce distractions.

Fixes and enhancements

Feedback during the public preview really helped us improve this page. Some of the more notable enhancements:

  • Compact line height: New user setting that controls the height of lines in the diff, which can help reduce scrolling and improve readability.
  • Submodule changes: The files changed when updating a submodule reference are now listed again.
  • Full commit message: The full commit message was previously hidden behind “Show More”, but is now fully shown.

Some of the more notable bugs that were addressed:

  • Fixed: The native browser context menu replaced by a custom menu when right-clicking on a diff.
  • Fixed: Tab indents not rendering correctly on some browsers.
  • Fixed: Missing “no newline at end of file” indicator.
  • Fixed: Performance issues on some browsers when interacting with the page.

See the full list of fixes and enhancements in the public preview feedback discussion.

Get help

To learn more about viewing commits, see About commits.

To give feedback, ask questions, or report a bug join us in the GitHub Community.

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