GitHub Copilot Chat for VS Code goes open source with MIT license and native integration

Microsoft has announced the open sourcing of the GitHub Copilot Chat extension for Visual Studio Code under the MIT license, as revealed during the opening keynote at BUILD 2025. In the coming months, the AI-powered features from GitHub Copilot will transition into the open-source Visual Studio Code repository. This transition will make Copilot native to all forks of VS Code, broadening access and embedding advanced coding assistance features for every user.

With this move, developers gain more transparency into how Copilot works and what data it collects, while also enabling the community to identify and fix vulnerabilities more quickly. Microsoft notes that recent advancements in large language models now reduce the need for closed, proprietary prompting techniques. Following these announcements, Microsoft confirmed that GitHub Copilot can now be used within Visual Studio Code on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with developers simply logging in via their GitHub account. This shift puts competitive pressure on closed tools like Cursor and Windsurf Editor.

Microsoft also introduced GitHub Models, a centralized platform in the GitHub ecosystem designed for browsing AI models, prompt management, and team collaboration. GitHub Models integrates organization-level controls to support secure experimentation and ensure governance for development teams.