GitHub today announced plans for an enterprise subscription tier that will allow companies to fine-tune its Copilot pair-programmer based on their internal codebase.
The news constituted part of a number of notable tidbits the Microsoft-owned company revealed at its annual GitHub Universe developer conference today, including a new partner program as well as providing a little more clarity on when Copilot Chat will officially be available.
GitHub Hints at an Enterprise Plan for Copilot
GitHub initially introduced Copilot Chat in March, and it progressed to a public beta for business users in July. It became available to individual users in September. Next month, in December, Copilot Chat is set to enter general availability, although GitHub hasn’t specified an exact date.
In essence, Copilot Chat is a chatbot integrated into the developer’s IDE. It enables them to ask questions about their current code, identify and suggest bug fixes, and offer inline feedback on specific code lines.
In March, GitHub introduced Copilot Chat, which later entered a public beta for business users in July. It became accessible to individual users in September. Copilot Chat is scheduled to become generally available next month, in December, although GitHub hasn’t provided a specific date.
In a nutshell, Copilot Chat is an integrated chatbot within the developer’s IDE, allowing them to inquire about their current code, propose bug fixes, and provide inline feedback on specific code lines.
GitHub Empowers Developers with Copilot Enterprise Subscription
In an enterprise move, GitHub disclosed its plans to introduce a new premium Copilot subscription priced at $39 per month. Starting in February 2024, Copilot Enterprise will encompass all the features of the current business plan, with additional benefits. This includes the capability for companies to customize Copilot Chat to match their codebase and make adjustments to the underlying models.
The idea here is that a company would connect Copilot to their codebase, with developers able to receive suggestions on all their internal, private code. This actually runs tangentially to another announcement today, vis-à-vis Copilot Chat will be extending beyond the code editor and IDE to GitHub.com for those that subscribe to Copilot Enterprise. This will allow developers to delve deep into their code, documentation, and pull requests with Copilot Chat serving up summaries, suggestions, and answers to a broader gamut of questions.
Thomas Dohmke, the CEO of GitHub, explained in a blog accompanying today’s GitHub Universe news that Copilot Enterprise, when connected to your GitHub.com repositories, empowers your developer teams to swiftly acclimate to your codebase, search, and create documentation, receive suggestions based on internal and private code, and efficiently assess pull requests. He emphasized that by providing your developers with easy access to your organization’s collective codebase knowledge, they will not only write code more expeditiously but also gain a competitive edge in deploying your next application, feature, or update.
Currently, Copilot Chat functions with private workspaces within the IDE, but it necessitates users to clone their repository locally. Copilot Enterprise, on the other hand, extends this capability to facilitate AI-driven discussions about code and related documentation in the cloud. Furthermore, companies can customize the model to enhance Copilot’s ability to provide tailored code completions and answers to specific, codebase-specific questions.
