GitHub Copilot CLI – First Impressions (elite-ai-assisted-coding.dev)

GitHub has released a public preview of Copilot CLI, a native terminal-based agent that brings Copilot’s coding assistance to the command line. Packaged as an npm TypeScript tool (@github/copilot), it guides users through GitHub authentication, then runs in interactive mode (copilot) for turn-based dialogs or in autonomous mode (copilot --prompt / -p) for single-shot tasks—making it useful both for ad-hoc help and automation/CI scripts. The terminal UI is clean and familiar, with a handy Ctrl+R toggle between compact and expanded views showing model traces and tool calls. Technically, Copilot CLI hides the underlying model (reported in practice to be Claude 4 Sonnet) and currently doesn’t expose model selection, but it tightly integrates with existing GitHub Copilot subscriptions. Billing is consumption-based and measured per request (a single agent turn), with live visibility into usage—offering clearer, more predictable costs than per-token pricing. The CLI demonstrated robust filesystem and tooling integration (e.g., fetching templates, modifying code, registering local MCP servers, and calling custom tools), proving capable of reading project context and orchestrating multi-step tasks. For developers already on Copilot, this fills a key gap by extending AI assistance beyond the IDE into terminal workflows, automation, and CI without separate subscriptions.