GitHub previews Copilot Workspace for AI-assisted coding

GitHub is launching a technical preview of its Copilot Workspace, a developer environment that allows developers to employ natural language when brainstorming, planning, building, testing, and running code. This new innovation offers a task-centric workflow driven by Copilot-powered agents in a secure cloud computing, enhancing developers' workflows without subtracting the parts they value.

The Copilot Workspace was tailor-made to directly meet developers at the original GitHub repository or a GitHub issue and build a comprehensive step-by-step plan to resolve the issue. This approach reduces the cognitive barrier of not knowing where to start and allows them to remain in control by enabling them to implement, edit, regenerate, and undo the plan using natural language.

GitHub's new workspace aims to further empower developers with tools to test and validate AI-generated code. Developers will additionally benefit from automatically saved versions and the context of previous changes, thereby streamlining collaboration and enhancing confidence.

Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, stated, "In the past two years, generative AI has foundationally changed the developer landscape largely as a tool embedded inside the developer environment. In 2022, we launched GitHub Copilot... boosting developer productivity by up to 55%. Github Copilot is the most widely adopted AI developer tool."

He added, "We are reimagining the nature of the developer experience itself with the technical preview of GitHub Copilot Workspace: the Copilot-native developer environment.... Copilot Workspace will empower more experienced developers to operate as systems thinkers, and materially lower the barrier of entry to build software."

Within the Workspace, developers will be met right at the origin of their task, from a GitHub repository or a GitHub issue. The Workspace will utilise Copilot agents to build a comprehensive plan to solve the problem based on its understanding of the issue, the codebase, issue replies, and more.

Developers have the ability to edit any of the proposals of the Workspace from the code to the plan. The intention is to lift the cognitive strain while letting developers retain full autonomy. Following the creation of the plan, developers can run their code directly in the Workspace, modify all code changes until they're satisfied and even share a link to the workspace with their team so they can review and try out their own iterations.

Moreover, the GitHub Copilot Workspace is mobile-compatible. As ideas can occur anywhere, the Workspace aims to be optimised for use on any device. It aims to promote an intuitive, Copilot-powered infrastructure that makes it easier to start, to learn, and finally to execute.