GitHub Copilot gets mentioned constantly and explained properly rarely, most people know "it suggests code as you type" and stop there. This post covers it from the ground up, using the Product CRUD API from earlier posts as the working example, since that domain is already familiar and lets the focus stay entirely on Copilot itself rather than a new codebase.
What GitHub Copilot Actually Is
Copilot is an AI pair programmer built into your editor, trained on a large body of public code, that suggests code based on the context of what you're currently writing. It is not one single feature, it's actually three genuinely different tools sharing one name.
Inline Suggestions show ghost text as you type, predicting the next line or few lines, press Tab to accept, Esc to dismiss. This is the original, most common form of Copilot.
Copilot Chat is a separate side panel where you ask questions, request explanations of existing code, or ask it to generate something specific through conversation.
