Pattern: Copilot snnipet handling
yuhattor opened this issue · comments
Description
GitHub Copilot, which utilizes OpenAI's Large Language Models (LLM) to generate code, has a limitation on the number of tokens it can process. As of 2023, it doesn't see all of the code that's open in the editor and doesn't receive every token. This means that users must carefully limit the context provided to GitHub Copilot. Notably, Copilot doesn't have access to external repositories or source code placed in GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
The files that GitHub Copilot uses for suggestions are primarily the currently open file and other tab files adjacent to it (basically with the same file extension). To make accurate suggestions, it's essential to have only the relevant files open. The following is a checklist as of August 2023. The types of files that GitHub Copilot includes as snippets may change in the future, but practices such as "closing unnecessary files" will likely have a positive impact on your coding even if you were not using GitHub Copilot.
- Open the files you need to refer to
- Close unnecessary files
- If there is an .md file you want to refer to, copy it and comment it out
If your first language is not English, it's worth noting that English is a very token-efficient language. Expressing the same concept in Japanese or other languages might consume more tokens. Writing comments in English could save tokens, but be mindful of your team's language preferences as it might hinder development speed. Then it's putting the cart before the horse.
https://www.ai-native.dev/docs/client-side-tips/copilot-snippet-handling