This article explains what GitHub Copilot SDK is and why use it

title: Get started with GitHub Copilot SDK, part 1 published: true description: This article explains what GitHub Copilot SDK is and why use it tags: copilot, python, ai, programming cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cty891qm0yhp71exdmoe.png

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published_at: 2026-03-04 20:48 +0000

Did you know GitHub Copilot now has an SDK and that you can leverage your existing license to build AI integrations into your app? No, well I hope I have you attention now.

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Series on Copilot SDK

This series is about Copilot SDK and how you can leverage your existing GitHub Copilot license to integrate AI into your apps

• Part 1 - install and your first app, you're here
• Part 2 - streamable responses

Install

You need two pieces here to get started:

• GitHub Copilot CLI
• A supported runtime, which at present means either Node.js, .NET, Python or Go

Then you need to install the SDK for your chosen runtime like so:

pip install github-copilot-sdk

The parts

So what do you need to know to get started? There are three concepts:

• Client, you need to create and instance of it. Additionally you need to start and stop it when you're done with it.
• Session. The session takes an object where you can set things like model, system prompt and more. Also, the session is what you talk when you want to carry out a request.
• Response. The response contains your LLM response.

Below is an example program using these three concepts. As you can see we choose "gpt-4.1" as model but this can be changed. See also how we pass the prompt to the function send_and_wait.

import asyncio
from copilot import CopilotClient

async def main():
    client = CopilotClient()
    await client.start()

    session = await client.create_session({"model": "gpt-4.1"})
    response = await session.send_and_wait({"prompt": "What is 2 + 2?"})

    print(response.data.content)

    await client.stop()

asyncio.run(main())

Ok, now that we know what a simple program looks like, let's make something interesting, an FAQ responder.

Your first app

An FAQ for a web page, is often a pretty boring read. A way to make that more interesting for the end user is if they can instead chat with the FAQ, let's make that happen.

Here's the plan:

• Define a static FAQ
• Add the FAQ as part of the prompt.
• Make a request to to the LLM and print out the response.

Let's build out the code little by little. First, let's define the FAQ information.

-1- FAQ information

# faq.py

faq = {
  "warranty": "Our products come with a 1-year warranty covering manufacturing defects. Please contact our support team for assistance.",
  "return_policy": "We offer a 30-day return policy for unused products in their original packaging. To initiate a return, please visit our returns page and follow the instructions.",     
  "shipping": "We offer free standard shipping on all orders over $50. Expedited shipping options are available at checkout for an additional fee.",
}

Next, let's add the call to the Copilot SDK

-2 Adding the LLM call

import asyncio
from copilot import CopilotClient

def faq_to_string(faq: dict) -> str:
    return "\n".join([f"{key}: {value}" for key, value in faq.items()])

async def main(user_prompt: str = "Tell me about shipping"):
    client = CopilotClient()
    await client.start()
 
    prompt = f"Here's the FAQ, {faq_to_string(faq)}\n\nUser question: {user_prompt}\nAnswer:"   

    session = await client.create_session({"model": "gpt-4.1"})
    response = await session.send_and_wait({"prompt": prompt})

    print(response.data.content)

    await client.stop()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("My first app using the GitHub Copilot SDK!")
    print(f"[LOG] Asking the model about shipping information...")
    asyncio.run(main("Tell me about shipping"))

Note how we concatenate the FAQ data with the user's prompt:

 prompt = f"Here's the FAQ, {faq_to_string(faq)}\n\nUser question: {user_prompt}\nAnswer:"   

-3- Let's run it

Now run it:

uv run faq.py

You should see output like so:

My first app using the GitHub Copilot SDK!
[LOG] Asking the model about shipping information...
We offer free standard shipping on all orders over $50. Expedited shipping options are available at checkout for an additional fee.

What's next

Check out the official docs