I had heard a lot about GitHub Copilot, but until a month ago had never used it. I am building Attorney Mesh (a marketplace for attorneys and clients), and I decided to give it a spin. Here is a quick recap of my experience.

What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool that provides suggestions for whole lines or blocks of code as you type, as well as providing some in place error correction. It's like having a pair of extra hands on the keyboard, helping you code faster and more efficiently. Built by GitHub in collaboration with OpenAI, Copilot is trained on tons of code from public repositories, enabling it to understand context and generate code suggestions in real-time.

For more detailed information including pricing and trial info, check out the GitHub Copilot for individuals https://github.com/features/copilot/plans

My Experience with GitHub Copilot

The moment I integrated GitHub Copilot into my workflow at AttorneyMesh.com, I was astounded by its intuitiveness and accuracy. It felt as if Copilot could read my mind, predicting what I wanted to do next. One instance that left me particularly impressed was when I was setting up an worked on adding functionality to link users with topics on our platform.

Initially, I added this comment:

//add a topicsOnUsers record for the user and topic

Based on this comment, Copilot suggested:

const topicOnUser = await prisma.topicsOnUsers.findFirst({
  where: {
    topicId: parseInt(topicId),
    userId: session.user.id
  }
});

Realizing it misunderstood what I was trying to do, I clarified I needed to create a new record rather than find an existing one. I simply updated my comment to:

//create a topicsOnUsers record for the user and topic

And Copilot immediately provided the perfect code snippet:

javascriptCopy codeconst topicSubscription = await prisma.topicsOnUsers.create({
  data: {
    topic: {
      connect: {
        id: parseInt(topicId),
      },
    },
    user: {
      connect: {
        id: session.user.id,
      },
    },
  },
});

This example underscores Copilot's ability to adapt to the developer's intent and provide contextually relevant code suggestions, significantly speeding up the development process.

Getting Started with GitHub Copilot

To begin experiencing the benefits of GitHub Copilot, you need to sign up for a trial. GitHub offers a one-month free trial, allowing you to test its capabilities and see how it fits into your development process. After the trial, Copilot is available for $10 a month, a small price for the value it adds to your velocity.

Why GitHub Copilot is Worth the Investment for Attorney Mesh

At AttorneyMesh.com, adopting GitHub Copilot has led to noticeable improvements in my development workflow. Not only has it reduced the time spent on routine coding tasks, but it has also allows me to clean up syntactic bugs without going through a Google->Stack Overflow cycle on some missing => or {} or [] or null. If I can save an hour a month using this technology, I hope that is worth the $10 a month pricing post-trial in my flow and my coding enjoyment.