VSCodium
Github Copilot: Useless Remnants
The Github Copilot chat does not work with VSCodium as of 11 Marh 2025.
However, the Github Copilot interface remains tightly integrated in VSCodium. Could it be removed to debloat and minimise cluttering?
To add to this, while these can be hidden, they are still displayed as something that can be added back to the toolbar, even when the Copilot extension is not enabled. As far as I can tell, that is not the case on VSCode, where when Copilot is disabled the secondary sidebar options are not able to be added.
Hey! Know that, for now, you can hide Copilot Edits by moving it to the left side bar, where an option for hiding it will appear.
While there is an option for hiding it, when it is on either the right or left sidebar, it is still a remnant. The problem is that it still appears in the options to display in the sidebar even though the Copilot extension is not installed. The plethora of keyboard shortcuts related to Copilot can still navigate to it it even when hidden if they are inadvertently hit (or, in my case, I'd previously mapped to a different action). It is also unhidden every time a project is opened for the first time, even when the Copilot extension is not installed.
The issue is that there are a features related to uninstalled extensions available, and that the Codium behavior differs Visual Studio Code, where (while the irritating keyboard shortcuts remain), the Chat/Copilot Edits views do not exist and will (correctly) throw an error if trying to access the view when the extension is not installed.
And at the same time, we have found that the old version of patch which moving Copilot off has lost efficacy
Hey daiyam, I use Continue with a local model. Is there a way to disable the Chat tab to use continue instead? It appears grayed out. Thanks for taking a look!
Wait, sorry, I figured it out. I had to drag continue to the TOP and then I could hide the whole chat. Sorry!
The fact that this issue exists is by design from Microsoft. They want to force us to use a feature to up their AI numbers to make investors happy. OSS mantainers shouldn't have to bear the responsibility of fixing bad design.
I understand if you don't want to create a patch for this, especially since a lot of the user base seems to want to use Copilot. I hope an actual option to disable the Chat window comes from upstream after all this AI hype calms down. Thank you for your work maintaining this fork.
VSCodium is a rebuild so the changes should only be about what's necessary for it to work.
I'm in the process a reviving my custom build, I'm planning to remove those extra stuffs...
any luck on icon being removed completely beside hiding/disabling it ? 😳️
Some users still want Copilot... so I won't remove it in VSCodium.
I’m concerned that the inclusion of GitHub Copilot as a core feature in recent VSCodium builds compromises its original promise of a telemetry-free and open-source experience. Since Copilot is now bundled with Visual Studio Code, it’s automatically included in VSCodium, despite being a proprietary service that collects user data.
This directly conflicts with VSCodium's fundamental principle of avoiding data transmission to Microsoft or other proprietary services. While VSCodium’s base code remains open-source, the pre-installed Copilot effectively introduces a non-free component and its associated data collection.
I believe users who prioritize GitHub Copilot integration would be better served by using the official Visual Studio Code, as that tool is designed for seamless integration with that service. Maintaining a truly telemetry-free VSCodium should involve either removing Copilot entirely or providing a clear and easy way to opt-out of its functionality.
it’s automatically included in VSCodium
The UI is included but not the configuration to connect the UI to the servers.
the pre-installed Copilot effectively introduces a non-free component and its associated data collection.
There is no pre-installed Copilot, just some UI elements. There is no data collected and shared to Copilot.
I believe users who prioritize GitHub Copilot integration would be better served by using the official Visual Studio Code
I agree that those who want Copilot should use Visual Studio Code. But, I think that somebody can configure their VSCodium to use their own chat agent.
It's worth adding to this discussion that using the Copilot extension in VSCodium violates the terms of service for Microsoft's Visual Studio Marketplace. On top of that, since the Copilot extension is proprietary, you can't, for example, publish it on open-vsx.org. That's probably reason enough by itself not to build Copilot functionality into VSCodium.
And people who want to use Copilot in an editor that's compatible with VS Code should simply use VS Code. Every other option is just problematic--legally, and probably in various other ways as well.
@peter-fb There isn't a Copilot extension. It's a direct integration into the editor so that code is under MIT. I left the code as this since:
- no configuration = no connection, no privacy issue (the configurations to the MS servers are under proprietary license, we don't use that)
- too much work to strip those code
- somebody could make an API compatible with the editor API
@daiyam I hope I’m getting this right, but it looks like this is the case:
There is a proprietary Copilot extension for VS Code: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.copilot
And there's additional code in VS Code that's MIT-licensed to integrate Copilot more fully into VS Code, that's what you probably mean.
I can understand if it's too much work to strip this MIT code out then it's better to leave it in if it does no harm (and doesn't surface in the UI).
I'm disabling the copilot UI by default (#2327).
How can I re-enable it? I tried using the settings, but it still doesn’t show up.
Note: GitHub Copilot now works with VSCodium — read more here.
"chat.commandCenter.enabled": true
I’ve already added "chat.commandCenter.enabled": true to settings.json, but it still doesn’t show up.