Understand how GitHub Copilot reads your code, generates suggestions, and keeps your data secure.
How Copilot Understands Your Code (Data Pipeline and Context Building)?
When you are coding, GitHub Copilot examines the contents of your file, including your code and comments, as well as other open files, to determine what you’re trying to accomplish.
This process is called context building. Copilot takes a quick “snapshot” of your workspace and sends that information securely to the AI model. The model then uses that context to suggest the most relevant code for your situation.
Your code is not saved or stored permanently. Copilot only uses it in real time to create helpful suggestions.
Example:
If you write this comment in Python:
# Create a function to greet the user
Copilot might suggest:
def greet_user(name):
print(f"Hello, {name}!")
It is understood from your comment that you want to greet a user and automatically generate the full function.
How Copilot Generates Suggestions (Filtering, Model Inference, and Prompts)?
Before sending any data to the AI model, Copilot performs a filtering step.
This step removes unnecessary or sensitive information so your private code stays safe.
After filtering, the AI performs what’s called inference. This means it analyzes your context and predicts what code might come next.
To do this, Copilot creates a prompt, which is like a detailed instruction for the AI model to follow. The better the prompt, the more accurate the suggestion will be.
Example
If you type:
# Function to calculate total price with taxCopilot could suggest something like:
def calculate_total_price(price, tax_rate):
total = price + (price * tax_rate)
return total
Copilot understands the purpose of your comment and generates code that aligns with it.
If you provide more detailed comments, the suggestion will often improve.
How Copilot Handles and Protects Your Data (Limitations and Context Window)?
Copilot can only view a certain amount of code at once, referred to as its context window.
It focuses on the most relevant parts of your code to generate suggestions.
If your project is large, Copilot won’t “see” every file, just the ones most related to what you’re currently working on.
Copilot does not permanently store or share your data. All processing happens in real time. GitHub also adheres to stringent security and privacy standards to protect your information.
Example:
Imagine your project has multiple files. You are editing one file that imports functions from others.
Copilot will use only the most relevant parts of those files to make suggestions.
It will not store or upload your project to a server. Once the suggestion is generated, the temporary data is gone.
