Take a beginner-friendly, hands-on tour of GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code. You will build a colorful Space Quiz from an empty folder and learn the editor loop: build in a workspace, inspect context, test before Git writes anything, plan before you edit, and let GitHub tools handle issues and pull requests without leaving VS Code.
The workshop takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Your project uses a single HTML file with no runtime dependencies, so you can focus on learning Copilot in the editor.
Lessons
| Lesson | Topic | What you will do |
|---|---|---|
| 0. Prerequisites and setup | Setup | Verify prerequisites, add the GitHub extension, open a folder, and choose a model |
| 1. Build in the workspace | Build | Build the quiz, preview it in the integrated browser, and polish an element you pick |
| 2. Capture project instructions | Instructions | Generate and tailor .github/copilot-instructions.md with /init |
| 3. Inspect context and test | Test | Inspect chat context and run a smoke test before Git writes anything |
| 4. Publish the project | Publish | Initialize, commit, and publish with Source Control |
| 5. Plan before you edit | Plan | Use Plan mode to agree on an approach for the next feature |
| 6. Give Copilot GitHub-aware tools | Tools | Enable and review the GitHub MCP server |
| 7. Plan and implement issues | Implement | Create issues with GitHub tools and implement one in a new session |
| 8. Review and merge | Review | Create a pull request from Source Control, request a review, and merge |
| 9. Hand off to a cloud session | Delegate | Switch the harness to Cloud and delegate a new feature |
| 10. Review and next steps | Review | Recap the workflow and continue learning |