We’re excited to announce that the GitHub Copilot for Eclipse plugin is going open source under the MIT license and will be hosted on GitHub under the microsoft organization in the coming weeks.
By open-sourcing the project, we’re inviting the community to contribute, extend, and innovate, helping shape a more powerful and inclusive AI development experience for everyone in the open source ecosystem.
Update
The repository is now available on GitHub — you can explore and start contributing here:
👉 https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-for-eclipse
We’re excited to see the community get involved and help shape the future of Copilot for Eclipse!
Why are we open‑sourcing Copilot for Eclipse?
Over the last few months, we’ve heard consistent requests from the community and from many active users of GitHub Copilot for Eclipse to open source the project. At the same time, many core interaction patterns and integration approaches have matured, making it a good moment to open the code and enable the community to refine and build on these shared experiences.
Open‑sourcing the GitHub Copilot for Eclipse plugin allows us to be more transparent about how the plugin works, welcome broader community contributions, and evolve the product in closer collaboration with Eclipse developers and maintainers.
What’s next?
We’ll continue to:
- Evolve GitHub Copilot features in Eclipse
- Work closely with the developer community
- Explore additional collaboration opportunities as the ecosystem evolves
FAQ
Does this affect my current GitHub Copilot subscription? No. This change does not affect your current GitHub Copilot subscription. To use GitHub Copilot, you will continue to need both a GitHub account and access to a GitHub Copilot subscription.
What is the timeline? When can I contribute to the project? We’re working toward open‑sourcing the GitHub Copilot for Eclipse plugin under the MIT license in the next few weeks. We’ll share more details once the source code is available on GitHub under the microsoft organization.
The open‑source for GitHub Copilot for Eclipse is now available on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-for-eclipse/
Is that the same codebase as https://github.com/eclipse-copilot/eclipse-copilot which was linked from https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-eclipse-feedback/issues/8#issuecomment-3187656639 already in August 2025?
Hi Kalle, this will be a new repository. Once the project is open‑sourced, we’ll share more details and invite the community to get involved and contribute.
A different repository, but the codebase seems to be the same anyway. Compare:
https://github.com/eclipse-copilot/eclipse-copilot/blob/main/org.eclipse.copilot.ui/src/org/eclipse/copilot/ui/handlers/GenerateCommitMessageHandler.java#L83-L113
https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-for-eclipse/blob/main/com.microsoft.copilot.eclipse.ui/src/com/microsoft/copilot/eclipse/ui/handlers/GenerateCommitMessageHandler.java#L77-L107