Copilot CLI

Project Introduction

GitHub Copilot CLI is GitHub's official terminal AI coding assistant. It supports BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) mode for custom model endpoints, letting you point it at AutoRouter via a few environment variables. Agent mode, tool calling, and MCP are all supported.

• Official docs: https://docs.github.com/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/cli-getting-started
• Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@github/copilot

This tutorial shows how to point Copilot CLI at AutoRouter using BYOK mode.

📦 Prerequisites

What you'll need

• Node.js 22 or later
• An AutoRouter endpoint (must end with /v1)
• An AutoRouter API key (generated in the console)
• A model ID exactly matching one exposed by your AutoRouter console (e.g. claude-sonnet-4-6, gemini-2.5-flash)

🚀 Step 1: Install Copilot CLI

npm install -g @github/copilot

Verify the install:

copilot --version

Full setup steps are in GitHub's getting started guide.

🔧 Step 2: Point it at AutoRouter

Copilot CLI reads provider config from environment variables. Use anthropic as the provider type for the best compatibility.

Linux / macOS

export COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=anthropic
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://autorouter.top/v1
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=your-autorouter-api-key
export COPILOT_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-6

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE="anthropic"
$env:COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL="https://autorouter.top/v1"
$env:COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY="your-autorouter-api-key"
$env:COPILOT_MODEL="claude-sonnet-4-6"

Why anthropic type is recommended

Some models (especially reasoning models) require reasoning_content to be echoed back verbatim in the next turn. Copilot CLI's OpenAI integration doesn't support that mechanism, which can trigger 400 errors. Using the Anthropic Messages API compatible endpoint avoids this.

If you only use non-reasoning models (e.g. gemini-2.5-flash), you may set COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=openai instead.

Optional: context / output token limits

export COPILOT_PROVIDER_MAX_PROMPT_TOKENS=840000
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=128000

✅ Step 3: Launch & verify

copilot

Ask any coding question (e.g. "Write a Python function that reads a JSON file"). A normal response means you're set.

copilot help providers

lists every provider-related environment variable.

🔄 Switching models

Change COPILOT_MODEL and restart:

copilot

The model name must exactly match the model ID exposed by your AutoRouter console.

❓ Troubleshooting