- Add copilot config subcommands to list, read, set, and remove settings.
- Add a pre-conversation Ctrl+E environment picker to switch between local and cloud runs
- Entra-protected MCP servers can silently renew access-token-only credentials.
- Legacy HTTP+SSE MCP connections no longer hang indefinitely when a message POST is never acknowledged; the acknowledgement is bounded by the server's configured timeout
- Voice runtime install errors name why the download from nuget.org failed, not only the fallback feed's 401
- Compaction keeps your latest prompt when requests exceed context limits
GitHub Copilot CLI by GitHub (Microsoft)
Pulse Score
46 / 100
Rank #52 of 157
Downloads, last 7 days
1.7M
up 19.1% vs previous week
Downloads, last 30 days
7M
down 36.3% vs previous 30 days
GitHub stars
11.2K
about +5 a day
Latest release
1.0.92
yesterday · 8 in 30 days
Price
Free + $10/mo
checked Oct 5, 2026
Overview
GitHub's standalone terminal coding agent (`copilot`, npm @github/copilot) that plans and edits code, runs commands and works with GitHub from the terminal. It runs on a Copilot plan and also supports bring-your-own model providers.
GitHub Copilot CLI was downloaded 1.7M times from npm in the week ending Oct 4, 2026, up 19.1% on the week before and down 36.3% over the last 30 days compared with the 30 before. The GitHub repository has 11.2K stars, 158 of them added in the last 30 days. The latest stable release is 1.0.92, published Oct 5, 2026; there were 8 stable releases in the past 30 days. It was mentioned in 11 Hacker News posts and comments over the last 30 days.
Recent developments
- 2026-02-25: Copilot CLI became generally available
GitHub Copilot CLI usage and attention over time
Download the raw daily series: github-copilot-cli.csv
Install GitHub Copilot CLI
| npm | npm install -g @github/copilot |
|---|---|
| Homebrew | brew install --cask copilot-cli |
These commands use the packages tracked on this page. The vendor may recommend a different installer; see the official documentation.
Key facts
| Maker | GitHub (Microsoft) |
|---|---|
| Type | Terminal agent |
| First released | September 2025 |
| License | Proprietary |
| Interfaces | CLI, SDK |
| Platforms | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| Models | Models offered through GitHub Copilot, selectable with /model; BYOK for OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic and local models |
| Local models | Bring your own model: Ollama, vLLM, Foundry Local or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (docs) |
| Bring your own API key | Yes |
| Main language | Shell |
| Open issues and PRs | 2,171 |
| Homebrew installs | 8,574 in 30 days · 231,250 in a year |
Pricing
Included in all Copilot plans: Free $0 (limited), Pro $10/month, Pro+ $39/month, Max $100/month; usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01) shared with chat, agent and CLI use. Business and Enterprise plans are not priced on the individual plans page.
Source: official pricing page, checked Oct 5, 2026. Prices change often; confirm before you buy.
Pulse Score breakdown
Adoption72
Community44
Attention12
Momentum14
Each component is scored 0 to 100 from public signals; a dash means no data for it. Methodology.
What changed: recent GitHub Copilot CLI releases
- Add copilot sandbox ca commands to check, create, trust, rotate, and remove proxy CA trust, including unattended Windows setup; /sandbox ca install becomes create and trust
- Session timelines now clear busy status after interrupted turns finish.
- Sandboxed commands run on Windows versions without filesystem enumeration support, with a warning that PowerShell's current location may be wrong
- Footer text selection stays on the same visible line when the footer grows or shrinks.
- Offer sandbox network bypass for Node/npm EACCES socket denials on Windows
- CLI shutdown flushes pending telemetry before exit, with a bounded delay when telemetry is still initializing.
- Add support for GPT-6.1 Sol in model selection
- Add --mcp-github-auth to scope GitHub account auth to approved MCP server origins
- Add session-scoped read-only directory approvals to path access prompts
- Permission prompts remain answerable after resuming interrupted sessions.
- Auto-approval now takes into account messages you type while the agent is working, as it already did for prompts sent while it was idle
- Compaction now returns a summary even when instructions ask for tool use.
- Left-clicking supported askuser and elicitation form inputs focuses them and places the cursor at the clicked position
- Add support for Claude Code rule files in .claude/rules as custom instructions
- Sessions in the sidebar show a blue dot when they finished a turn you have not opened yet
- Auto suggests a routing tier and lets you switch with a shortcut or click
- Auto shows a quick feedback prompt after switching away to a manually selected model
- MCP pre-registered OAuth clients honor configured oauthScopes.
- Add optional OSC 777 terminal notifications for direct Ghostty and WezTerm sessions.
- Text selection now works in bottom-anchored dialogs, including login device codes
- Preserve /allow-all during managed-settings refresh failures, and remember exact session approvals for missing paths without granting their parent directory; exact grants are visible in /list-dirs…
- Sandboxed network denials from proxy tunnel failures now show bypass guidance
- Custom-agent startup now distinguishes model-list load failures from an empty catalog, preventing false unavailable warnings and silent required-agent deselection
- Pressing Enter in freeform askuser prompts adds a new line; submit with Ctrl+Enter or Ctrl+S as a fallback
- Add user and managed startup defaults for the Auto routing tier, including strict and user-overridable organization policy
- Consecutive steering prompts in the same mode combine into one pending message. Press Up in an empty chat input to take it back for editing, including pasted text and attachments. The recall hint…
- A worktreePathTemplate setting decides where /worktree, /move, /new and --worktree create worktrees. Set for example ~/src/worktrees/{repo}/{branch}; {repoPath}, {repo}, {branch} and {branchSlug}…
- Number-key selection in the question dialog works for choices 10 and beyond
- Sandbox proxies work on Windows, and a proxy with a username and password works on every platform
- /keep-alive (and /caffeinate) no longer reports that sleep is prevented when the sleep inhibitor exits immediately on startup instead of acquiring the lock (e.g. no session bus on…
GitHub Copilot CLI alternatives
| # | Agent | Pulse | Downloads 7d | 7d | 30d | VS Code installs | Stars | Latest release | Price | Last 90 days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
OpenAI CodexOpenAI |
82 | 25.6M | up 5.7% | up 21.2% | 15.2M | 128K+153/day | 0.160.1yesterday | Free + $8/mo | ||
| 3 |
Claude CodeAnthropic |
80 | 14.8M | up 11.6% | down 36.4% | 27.1M | 150K+161/day | 2.1.290yesterday | $20/mo | ||
| 5 |
PiEarendil Inc. (created by Mario Zechner) |
75 | 5.2M | up 29.8% | up 52.1% | — | 113K+378/day | 1.0.4yesterday | Free (OSS) | ||
| 7 |
OpenCodeAnomaly (SST team) |
73 | 3.3M | up 22.0% | up 6.1% | 1.2M | 212K+200/day | 1.18.346d ago | Free + $10/mo | ||
| 24 |
Gemini CLIGoogle |
57 | 453K | up 4.7% | up 1.8% | 1.1M | 107K+24/day | 0.62.07d ago | Varies | ||
| 26 |
Oh My PiStencil Labs (Can Bölük) |
56 | 241K | up 11.4% | up 53.9% | — | 34.4K+111/day | 18.6.12d ago | Free (OSS) | ||
| No agents match that filter. | |||||||||||
Head to head: GitHub Copilot CLI vs Claude Code
Guides that cover GitHub Copilot CLI
GitHub Copilot CLI FAQ
How much does GitHub Copilot CLI cost?
Included in all Copilot plans: Free $0 (limited), Pro $10/month, Pro+ $39/month, Max $100/month; usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01) shared with chat, agent and CLI use. Business and Enterprise plans are not priced on the individual plans page.
Is GitHub Copilot CLI open source?
No. GitHub Copilot CLI is a proprietary product from GitHub (Microsoft).
How popular is GitHub Copilot CLI?
GitHub Copilot CLI was downloaded 1.7M times from npm in the week ending Oct 4, 2026, up 19.1% on the week before and down 36.3% over the last 30 days compared with the 30 before. The GitHub repository has 11.2K stars, 158 of them added in the last 30 days. The latest stable release is 1.0.92, published Oct 5, 2026; there were 8 stable releases in the past 30 days.
What is the latest version of GitHub Copilot CLI?
The latest stable release we track is 1.0.92, published on Oct 5, 2026.
What are the alternatives to GitHub Copilot CLI?
The closest alternatives in the same category by Pulse Score are OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Pi, OpenCode.
Where these numbers come from
npm: @github/copilot. GitHub: github/copilot-cli. Homebrew: copilot-cli. See data sources for how each one is collected.
Product facts and pricing were checked against: github.com, docs.github.com, raw.githubusercontent.com, registry.npmjs.org, formulae.brew.sh.