GitHub Copilot CLI Cheat Sheet

GitHub Copilot for the command line. AI-powered shell assistance and command suggestions.

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Installation

# Install via npm
npm install -g @githubnext/github-copilot-cli
Or via GitHub CLI
gh extension install github/gh-copilot
Authenticate
gh auth login

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Core Commands

Command	Description
`gh copilot suggest`	Get command suggestion
`gh copilot explain`	Explain a command
`??`	Quick suggest (alias)
`git?`	Git-specific suggestions
`gh?`	GitHub CLI suggestions

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gh copilot suggest

Get command suggestions from natural language.

# Basic usage
gh copilot suggest "find all js files modified today"
Interactive mode
gh copilot suggest
> find all js files modified today

Output:

find . -name "*.js" -type f -mtime -1

Press Enter to run, Ctrl+C to cancel.

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gh copilot explain

Explain what a command does.

# Explain command
gh copilot explain "tar -xzf archive.tar.gz"
Interactive mode
gh copilot explain
> tar -xzf archive.tar.gz

Output:

This command extracts a tar archive:
tar: tape archive utility
-x: extract files
-z: decompress using gzip
-f: specify filename
archive.tar.gz: the file to extract

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Shell Aliases (Optional)

Add to .bashrc or .zshrc for quick access:

# Suggest
alias '??'='gh copilot suggest -t shell'
Git suggestions
alias 'git?'='gh copilot suggest -t git'
GitHub CLI suggestions
alias 'gh?'='gh copilot suggest -t gh'
Explain
alias 'explain'='gh copilot explain'

Usage:

?? "kill process on port 3000"
git? "undo last commit but keep changes"
gh? "list my open PRs"
explain "ps aux | grep node"

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Target Types (-t flag)

Specialize suggestions for specific tools:

Target	Description
`shell`	General shell commands (default)
`git`	Git commands
`gh`	GitHub CLI commands

Examples

# Shell (default)
gh copilot suggest "compress folder"
Git-specific
gh copilot suggest -t git "undo last commit"
GitHub CLI-specific
gh copilot suggest -t gh "create PR"

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Interactive Mode

Run without arguments for interactive prompts:

gh copilot suggest

You'll be prompted to: 1. Enter what you want to do 2. Review suggested command 3. Accept (Enter), Revise, Explain, or Cancel

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Examples

File Operations

?? "find all files larger than 100MB"
Output: find . -type f -size +100M
?? "delete all node_modules folders"
Output: find . -name "node_modules" -type d -exec rm -rf {} +
?? "count lines in all ts files"
Output: find . -name "*.ts" | xargs wc -l

Process Management

?? "kill process on port 8080"
Output: lsof -ti:8080 | xargs kill -9
?? "show top 10 memory-consuming processes"
Output: ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -11
?? "restart nginx"
Output: sudo systemctl restart nginx

Git Operations

git? "undo last commit but keep changes"
Output: git reset --soft HEAD~1
git? "show files changed in last commit"
Output: git diff --name-only HEAD~1 HEAD
git? "create branch and switch to it"
Output: git checkout -b new-branch-name

GitHub CLI

gh? "list my open PRs"
Output: gh pr list --author @me --state open
gh? "create PR with title and body"
Output: gh pr create --title "Title" --body "Description"
gh? "view CI status"
Output: gh run list --limit 5

System Operations

?? "check disk usage"
Output: df -h
?? "show listening ports"
Output: netstat -tuln
?? "compress folder to tar.gz"
Output: tar -czf folder.tar.gz folder/

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Flags

Flag	Description
`-t <target>`	Target type (shell, git, gh)
`--explain`	Explain the suggested command
`--non-interactive`	Non-interactive mode (print only)

Examples

# Non-interactive (print suggestion only)
gh copilot suggest --non-interactive "find js files"
Auto-explain
gh copilot suggest --explain "tar -xzf file.tar.gz"

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Tips & Best Practices

Clear Descriptions

✅ "find all TypeScript files modified in the last 7 days"
❌ "find files"

Use Target Types

Use -t git for Git commands
Use -t gh for GitHub CLI commands
Use -t shell (or omit) for general shell

Review Before Running

Always review suggested commands
Use explain if unsure what a command does
Press Ctrl+C to cancel

Combine with Pipes

?? "show disk usage sorted by size" | head -10

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Common Use Cases

Development

?? "install node dependencies and run dev server"
git? "stash changes and switch to main branch"
gh? "check CI status for current branch"

DevOps

?? "docker remove all stopped containers"
?? "kubectl get pods in namespace default"
?? "show last 50 lines of nginx logs"

Data Processing

?? "convert json to csv"
?? "count unique IPs in access.log"
?? "replace all tabs with spaces in ts files"

System Admin

?? "check CPU usage per process"
?? "show open network connections"
?? "add user to sudo group"

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Explain Command Examples

Complex Commands

explain "awk '{sum+=$1} END {print sum}' file.txt"
explain "sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' *.txt"
explain "find . -name '*.log' -mtime +30 -delete"

Docker

explain "docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx"
explain "docker-compose up --build"

Git

explain "git rebase -i HEAD~3"
explain "git cherry-pick abc123"

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Pricing

Included with GitHub Copilot subscription:

Individual: $10/month or $100/year
Business: $19/user/month
Free for students, teachers, open-source maintainers

No additional cost for CLI usage if you have Copilot.

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Troubleshooting

"Not authenticated"

# Re-authenticate
gh auth login
Check status
gh auth status

"Command not found: gh"

# Install GitHub CLI first
brew install gh  # macOS
or download from https://cli.github.com

Slow Responses

Check internet connection
Try again (GitHub API may be slow)
Use --non-interactive for faster output

Wrong Suggestions

Be more specific in description
Use target types (-t git, -t gh)
Try rephrasing the request

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Resources

GitHub CLI: https://cli.github.com
Copilot CLI Docs: https://github.com/github/gh-copilot
GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot
Support: https://support.github.com