Start here: install Copilot and your first suggestion
Goal. Set up GitHub Copilot in VS Code and watch it complete your first line of Python.
# Load gene_counts.csv, normalize by library size, and plot a heatmap of the top 50 most variable genes with seaborn
Open a new .py file in VS Code and type this comment. Copilot offers a greyed-out suggestion — press Tab to accept it.
- 1Install VS Code, then add the GitHub Copilot extension from the Extensions panel and sign in with a GitHub account. The Free plan needs no credit card and gives you 2,000 completions a month.
- 2Open a
.pyfile and type the comment above. Copilot reads what you wrote and proposes the next lines as faint ghost text. - 3Press Tab to accept a suggestion, or keep typing to ignore it — Copilot re-suggests as you go. Edit the filename to match a real CSV when you run it.
You'll see. Roughly 15 lines of pandas + seaborn code appearing as you type, generated from a single comment — accepted line by line with Tab.
Cost. Free plan = $0/mo, 2,000 code completions per month plus limited chat and agent usage, with access to multiple models. Code completions don't consume AI Credits. Verified students get unlimited completions free via the GitHub Student Developer Pack.
Takeaway. Copilot turns a plain-English comment into working code right inside your editor — no browser, no copy-paste.