GitHub for Beginners: How to get started with GitHub Copilot - Related to to-do, how, openapi, tunnel?, mintlify

Light at the end of the To-do tunnel?

Things I've worked on/completed since my last post….

I have been working on local storage (the To-do project).

I had to r*evisit date-fns*, as previously, I had converted the input date to the desired format, which was then saved to the data object, but then I had trouble trying to convert the date back when I wanted the data to be read.

I wondered if it was possible to format the date picker itself, but was told it was not and it was suggested to me that my original approach may not have been ideal. I realised that I had been creating more steps than were necessary, that I should not interfere with the data in the data object and that the ‘right’ way to do it would be to format the the date after it had been read.

Why do so many things make sense in hindsight.

I got local storage working! I had to rework my edit and delete functions as the sequence of my unique IDs was off due to using the local storage object - to my own amazement, I fixed this quickly and got everything working.

I am thrilled that I managed to figure this out without asking any questions (googling excluded) and it has made me less concerned about figuring out future problems which I have no experience with either.

Things I've learnt/need to improve on...

My git commit history, through the second half of this project in particular, was dreadful. I attribute this to being distracted by all the problems I was trying to deal with at one time - I defnitely need to give attention to this.

I think it’s possible that I could finish this project (which has taken months so far) this week(!), but I am not putting myself under pressure.

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GitHub for Beginners: How to get started with GitHub Copilot

Welcome to season two of GitHub for Beginners! Last season, we introduced you to GitHub and helped you go from beginner to confidently using the platform. This season, we’re continuing your journey by leading you into the world of AI with GitHub Copilot.

Imagine having a pair programmer who never takes a break and knows plenty of programming languages. That’s Copilot, which is powered by a number of large language models (LLMs) that you can choose from and is the industry’s most widely adopted AI coding tool. Today, we’ll be exploring everything you need to know to get started using it.

Get you up and running with GitHub Copilot.

Give you an overview of the different usage tiers from free to enterprise.

Help you use GitHub Copilot for the very first time!

For the demos in this series, we use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code. Copilot is available in other IDEs, but the available functionality may vary depending on your environment.

Ready to start using GitHub Copilot? We have documentation to help. It shows you how to get access to Copilot and how to use it, with step-by-step instructions so you can follow along. Learn how to set up GitHub Copilot >.

Powered by generative AI and LLM models, GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that helps you write code faster. It’s designed to help with programming tasks and acts as your assistant while working in your editor and on [website].

In addition to code completion, GitHub Copilot can help you:

Write code using natural language prompts.

You can use GitHub Copilot with a variety of programming languages, and it’s available in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, XCode, on GitHub Mobile, in your terminals, and on [website]!

This leads us to our next question: how do you access GitHub Copilot?

What are the different tiers of GitHub Copilot?

Before using GitHub Copilot, you need to have a GitHub account and—if you want more than the free version—a Copilot license.

For individuals: GitHub Copilot Free Copilot Pro.

For professionals and organizations: Copilot Business Copilot Enterprise.

For students and educators: Free access to Copilot Pro through GitHub Education.

For popular open source project maintainers: GitHub Copilot Pro (which is also free in our open source program).

How to install GitHub Copilot in VS Code and JetBrains.

How you install GitHub Copilot depends on what IDE you’re using. GitHub Copilot currently works with several IDEs on the market—but for the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on two popular IDEs: VS Code and JetBrains.

A few helpful notes in case you run into any issues:

You can sign in to GitHub in VS Code by selecting the “Accounts” menu in the Activity Bar, and then “Sign in to Sync Settings” to use GitHub Copilot.

If you see Copilot icons next to the Command Center and at the bottom of the VS Code window, you’ve successfully installed GitHub Copilot and are ready to use it.

We’ll be using PyCharm to install GitHub Copilot in JetBrains IDE. Here’s how:

If you didn’t previously authorize JetBrains in your GitHub account, you’ll need to sign in to GitHub in your editor.

Return to your editor and you will see a message that GitHub Copilot has been successfully installed.

Now, it’s time to authorize GitHub Copilot Chat.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’re ready to use GitHub Copilot in JetBrains.

How to use code completions in GitHub Copilot.

We now have Copilot installed in our editors, so let’s explore how to use capabilities like code complete. In our example, we’ll be using Python in VS Code.

Here’s a short walkthrough on using code complete in GitHub Copilot:

One thing to keep in mind: because we’re using Copilot for inline code completion, the gray text represents ghost text with Copilot’s suggestions. If you try this later and get a different response, no worries! When working with GitHub Copilot or any LLM, responses are nondeterministic—which means a different result may be generated every time (so you may get a different result than what’s shown in the examples).

Want to learn more? Check out our Docs Find out how to use GitHub Copilot to get code suggestions in your editor including power tips to get started. Get code suggestions in your IDE with GitHub Copilot >.

GitHub Copilot Chat can provide more context into the code and what it means. Maybe you’re seeing the code for the first time and need to be brought up to speed quickly.

Open Copilot Chat, type /explain , and hit Enter . Copilot will give you a detailed explanation of what’s happening in the code. You’ll see that Copilot Chat has a view of the currently opened file as indicated by the eye icon next to the file name at the bottom of the chat window.

Want to learn more about prompts and GitHub Copilot? We have Docs on just that. Find out about some of the most useful prompts to ask Copilot Chat. Get started with prompts >.

What’s the difference between GitHub Copilot and other copilots?

Time to address the elephant in the room: what’s the difference between GitHub Copilot and all the other copilots out there?

Well, GitHub Copilot is specifically designed for programming. And because it works where you work—both in your editor and on [website]—there’s no need to go back and forth between your browser or another app and your code. You’re able to stay focused without having to context switch between your editor and your AI assistant. And remember, when you hear “GitHub Copilot,” it’s referring to your personal AI pair programmer.

Looking to learn more about GitHub Copilot?

Try GitHub Copilot for free or read more about Copilot.

Thanks for joining our deep dive into GitHub Copilot.

If you want to watch this demo in action, we’ve created a YouTube tutorial that accompanies this blog.

If you have any questions, pop them in the GitHub Community thread and we’ll be sure to respond.

Join us for the next part of the series where we’ll walk through essential capabilities of GitHub Copilot.

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Integrating OpenAPI With Mintlify

Can a developer successfully work with an API without a standard API documentation? My answer is as good as yours. This means that API documentation is essential to all developers. A good API documentation is easy to understand, developer-friendly, simple, and concise.

, OpenAPI is the standard for defining your API. This means that with the help of this file, you can migrate your API documentation from one platform to another. For example, you can migrate your API docs from Postman to ReadMe or Mintlify or vice versa.

This tutorial will walk you through integrating your OpenAPI spec file into your Mintlify project. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a fully functional API documentation, powered by an OpenAPI spec file.

Mintlify installed [website] installed: Install [website] (version 19 or higher) before proceeding. You can download it here. Basic knowledge of OpenAPI You need to have some endpoints in your openAPI spec file in JSON or YAML format.

For this tutorial, I will use the Movie Database OpenAPI spec file. You can find the complete documentation here, and you can also clone the project from the GitHub repository if you want to work with it on your local computer.

1.) Go to the Mintlify website and create a new account. Follow the instructions and set up your first documentation deployment, and it will look like this:

2.) Go to any Code Editor of your choice, navigate to the project directory, open the terminal, and run the following command:

npm i -g mintlify Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode.

The command is used to install Mintlify CLI globally.

3.) After installing Mintlify globally, enable local preview of your Mintlify documentation with the following command:

mintlify dev Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode.

STEP 2: Understanding the OpenAPI spec file format.

The OpenAPI spec file, which is mostly edited in the Swagger Editor, is stored in JSON or YAML format. You can use any format of your choice, but it is advisable to use the YAML format because it is easier to read and maintain.

STEP 3: Integrate your OpenAPI spec file into Mintlify.

To integrate your OpenAPI spec file with your Mintlify project, follow these steps:

1.) When done documenting your OpenAPI spec file, save it in JSON or YAML format to your local device, and ensure that you put your “[website] or [website]” file in the same directory as the "api-reference" folder in your Mintlify project.

2.) Go to your [website] file and call your OpenAPI using the correct file path.

The openapi contains two properties here, “source” and “directory”.

“source”: “/api-reference/[website]” : The source specifies the path to your OpenAPI spec file.

"directory": "api-reference" : This specifies the directory where the OpenAPI spec file is located.

When you are done, it is key to validate your OpenAPI spec file before pushing it to your GitHub repository. Use the command “mintlify openapi-check ” to check for errors and validate your work. If no errors, it gives the response: “✅ Your OpenAPI definition is valid”. If there is an error, it points to the specific endpoint where the error is and the reason for the error.

By doing this, all your documentation in the OpenAPI spec file will be appropriately displayed.

You have successfully integrated your OpenAPI spec file in Mintlify. By leveraging this knowledge, you won’t need to manually document your endpoint in Mintlify anymore, but rather you can use the OpenAPI spec file to document your endpoint and use it across different platforms.

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