What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is just one of the generative AI tools that have taken the world by storm. If you’re a developer and haven’t heard of it, Copilot is an “AI-pair programmer.” It auto-completes code, boosts developer productivity, and eliminates bottlenecks and mundane coding tasks. Copilot helps developers get out of the weeds and become more creative, thereby building better software. GitHub Copilot uses OpenAI's Codex to generate code snippets in real-time, as the developer writes code in their IDE.

As developers continue to use Copilot’s code generator and autocomplete features and delve deeper into new languages and frameworks with the help of AI, they will need additional AI-powered tools to keep up with the volume and technical sophistication of their generated code. Pieces for Developers brings new capabilities to the development workflow, and it pairs perfectly with generative AI tools like Copilot.

What is Pieces for Developers?

Pieces for Developers is an advanced snippet manager and productivity helper. It’s designed to optimize developer tools and eliminate the chaos of context switching. It allows developers to quickly save, enrich, search, transform, and share code snippets throughout their workflow. This makes it a great companion for developers looking to organize their work. Pieces for Developers is powered by a combination of AI from in-house models and OpenAI's APIs. It’s compatible with a wide range of developer tools, including IDEs, browsers, and GitHub. Pieces can ingest an entire repository and extract dozens of valuable code snippets that it will enrich and suggest later.

How does Pieces work with Copilot?

When a developer generates a code snippet using Copilot code completion, Pieces captures additional information about the snippet, including its description, tags, and related links. This information enriches the snippet and makes it easier to search and share. Moreover, Pieces for Developers can provide valuable insights into the codebase generated by GitHub Copilot. The tool's AI capabilities capture contextual information about the code snippets, such as the programming language, the code's purpose, and its potential use cases. This information better organizes and manages the codebase, making it easier to find and reuse snippets in the future.

While GitHub Copilot and Pieces for Developers are powerful tools on their own, they work together to provide an even more powerful workflow for developers. GitHub Copilot coding tools generate code snippets in real-time, while Pieces for Developers manages and enriches these snippets, providing valuable insights into the codebase. When used together (or using Pieces as a GitHub Copilot alternative), these tools streamline the developer workflow and improve productivity.