Microsoft at its Build 2024 developer conference introduced Copilot Extensions, third-party add-ons to the GitHub Copilot AI-powered coding assistant.

Copilot Extensions, as the name suggests, are extended capabilities of GitHub Copilot that help with specific databases, SDKs, or APIs in the software development workflow.

GitHub Copilot was released for the first time in October 2021, and is available as an extension in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Vim, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs (integrated development environments).

Earlier in February, GitHub made the enterprise version of GitHub Copilot generally available. Later in April, the company previewed GitHub Copilot Workspace, a developer environment that incorporates the AI-powered programming assistant.  

The new Copilot Extensions feature in GitHub Copilot, according to GitHub senior vice president Mario Rodriguez, has been designed to accelerate developer workflows without users having to exit the GitHub window or their IDEs.

“We’re starting with GitHub Copilot Extensions from DataStax, Docker, LambdaTest, LaunchDarkly, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft Azure and Teams, MongoDB, Octopus Deploy, Pangea, Pinecone, Product Science, ReadMe, Sentry, and Stripe,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“Extensions are supported in GitHub Copilot Chat on GitHub.com, Visual Studio, as well as VS Code,” he added.

Additionally, enterprises can create their own private Copilot Extensions while the GitHub Marketplace will offer extensions that are open to all.

Microsoft said that developers can expect to see more partnerships for Copilot Extensions in the coming months.