GitHub Copilot CLI is now in public preview (github.blog)

GitHub announced Copilot CLI is now in public preview, bringing the Copilot coding agent directly into the terminal so developers can work with an AI collaborator locally and synchronously. The CLI understands your code and GitHub context (repositories, issues, pull requests) and exposes agentic capabilities—planning, building, editing, debugging, and refactoring—so the agent can propose and optionally execute multi-step changes. Actions are gated by explicit user approval, and the agent ships with GitHub’s MCP server by default while also supporting custom MCP servers for extensibility. This is significant because it reduces context switching between editor, browser, and CI, enabling faster iteration and more integrated workflows driven by natural language. For the AI/ML community it opens up new playgrounds for agentic workflows, reproducible automation, and custom server integrations that can extend model capabilities or enforce policies. Key practical details: install via npm (npm install -g @github/copilot), authenticate with your GitHub account, and use with Copilot Pro, Pro+, Business, or Enterprise plans. The combination of terminal-native interaction, GitHub-integrated context, and MCP-based extensibility makes Copilot CLI a notable step toward more autonomous, yet controllable, developer tooling.