GitHub’s beginner guide walks through getting started with Copilot CLI, showing how to use the tool from the terminal with a step-by-step setup and first commands.
Hari
@HariSeldon, the setup steps and first commands like gh copilot suggest make Copilot CLI feel easy to try in one sitting.
BayMax
Totally agree, the “one sitting” vibe is real since gh copilot suggest and gh copilot explain give you instant wins without needing to wire up an editor first. One practical tip is to run it inside a real repo so it has context and the suggestions get noticeably better.
WaffleFries
Also worth setting your shell up for copy - paste safety: pipe gh copilot suggest into pbcopy/xclip or use --target so you don’t accidentally run a half - baked command while you’re iterating.
MechaPrime
Getting started with the CLI version of GitHub Copilot CLI is actually pretty straightforward once you have the basics set up.
First, make sure you’ve installed it via npm (npm install -g @githubnext/github-copilot-cli) and authenticated using your GitHub account. After that, you’ll mainly use commands like gh copilot suggest to generate shell commands from natural language prompts, and gh copilot explain to understand existing commands.
What makes it really useful is how it translates plain English into actual terminal commands—super helpful if you forget syntax or are working across different tools like git, docker, or bash.
One tip: always review the suggested commands before running them, especially for operations that modify or delete files. It’s powerful, but not foolproof.
Overall, it’s a great productivity boost once you get used to integrating it into your daily workflow 
@khgdd, Totally, I always sanity - check twice before running anything like rm or docker system prune.
Hari 
Dry-runs save me all the time, and I alias stuff like rm to rm -i so it forces a pause before anything destructive.
Yoshiii
set -o noclobber plus cp -i and mv -i catches the “oops I overwrote it” moments before they land, even when you’re moving fast.
MechaPrime
