Current C++ code understanding tools available for GitHub Copilot Chat include the following:
- Get symbol definition, which retrieves detailed information about a C++ symbol including where it is defined and its associated metadata.
- Get symbol references, which finds all references to a given symbol across the codebase.
- Get symbol call hierarchy, which surfaces incoming and outgoing calls for a function to understand call patterns and dependencies.
To enable these tools, developers can select the “Enable Cpp Code Editing Tools” setting in the VS Code user settings.
Microsoft also has integrated CMake build and test configuration tools with GitHub Copilot in VS Code. Now GitHub Copilot Chat can leverage the build configurations identified and provided by the CMake Tools extension to build and test a project using the exact configuration already selected in VS Code. By working with the same CMake Tools integration developers use in the editor, GitHub Copilot avoids relying on ad hoc command-line invocations and stays aligned with chosen targets, presets, and build state, Microsoft said.
