GitHub has moved Copilot CLI to general availability for all Copilot subscribers, bringing full agent mode to the terminal. The GA release, announced via the official GitHub changelog, adds the capability to plan, write, debug, and review code without leaving the shell — along with custom agent definitions and sub-agent support for JetBrains IDEs.

For developers who live in the terminal, this is the Copilot integration they’ve been waiting for. The browser and IDE-based Copilot experiences have matured significantly, but the command line remained a second-class citizen until today.

What’s in the GA Release

Agent mode for terminal is the headline feature. Rather than offering one-shot code suggestions, Copilot CLI in agent mode can:

  • Plan complex tasks — given a high-level description, the agent breaks the task into steps, identifies dependencies, and proposes a sequenced approach before writing any code
  • Execute multi-step workflows — the agent can run commands, inspect output, adjust its approach based on results, and iterate without returning to the user at each step
  • Integrated debugging — when a command fails, the agent reads the error output and diagnoses the issue in context, rather than requiring the developer to manually relay the error to a chat interface
  • Code review from CLI — new in this release: gh copilot review can be run directly on a pull request or diff, producing a structured review with inline suggestions that can be applied from the terminal

Custom agents — Copilot CLI now supports user-defined custom agents stored in the repository (.github/agents/) that inherit Copilot’s underlying models but specialize in specific tasks. Examples: a test-writer agent with instructions calibrated to the project’s testing patterns, or a refactor agent with project-specific style conventions.

JetBrains sub-agent support — Copilot’s sub-agent architecture, previously available in VS Code, now extends to JetBrains IDEs. Sub-agents can be dispatched from within IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and other JetBrains products, with results surfaced in the IDE context.

The Terminal as a First-Class AI Environment

The terminal has always been the environment where developers move fastest. Everything else — IDEs, browser-based tools, chat interfaces — introduces context switching that breaks the flow that terminal-native developers have optimized for.

Copilot CLI GA closes the gap between the AI-native IDE experience and the terminal. Agent mode means developers can get the same planning, execution, and debugging capabilities that Cursor and Claude Code offer in their UI-heavy environments, without leaving the shell.

The practical workflow this enables: a developer can pull a GitHub issue, ask Copilot CLI to plan a fix, review the plan, execute it, run tests, and open a pull request — all from a single terminal session, all with AI assistance at each step.

Availability

Copilot CLI GA is available today for all GitHub Copilot Individual, Team, and Enterprise subscribers. Install via npm install -g @github/copilot-cli or upgrade an existing installation. The gh copilot extension is required for the full agent mode experience.