Lesson 0 - Prerequisites and setup

Bring Copilot into the editor. Copilot ships with VS Code, so there is nothing to install for chat. Add the GitHub extension, then open an empty folder.

In this lesson, you will:

• verify the workshop prerequisites.
• confirm that Copilot Chat responds in VS Code.
• install the GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension.
• open an empty project folder and choose a model.

Prerequisites

You need:

• a GitHub account. Create a GitHub account, or use your existing account.
• an active Copilot plan. Activate Copilot Free or a paid Copilot plan. If your organization already provides Copilot access, use that account.
• Visual Studio Code.
• Git installed. Run git --version in a terminal to verify it.

Set up VS Code

1. Install VS Code and sign in to GitHub. Copilot and Copilot Chat are built in, so open the Chat view from the title bar and confirm that it responds.
2. Open the Extensions view and install the official GitHub Pull Requests and Issues extension so issues and pull requests appear in the sidebar.
3. Create an empty folder named space-quiz, then select File > Open Folder and open it.
4. Choose a model with the model picker in the Chat view, using the preference order in the next section.

Choose a model

Select the first option available to you:

1. GPT-6-Luna (recommended).
2. Auto, as a balanced backup.
3. Any model from the list of active models.

Model availability depends on your plan, organization policy, and product version.

Summary and next steps

VS Code is ready with Copilot Chat, the GitHub extension, and an empty space-quiz folder. Continue to Lesson 1: Build in the workspace.