GitHub Copilot CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI is a terminal-native AI coding assistant.

Install

There are two ways to connect GitHub Copilot CLI, depending on how you run OpenKnowledge:

• Desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux). The first time you open a project, a consent dialog detects GitHub Copilot CLI and configures it for you. To re-trigger the dialog, choose File → Set up OpenKnowledge integrations….
• Web app / terminal (any platform, including Intel Macs — see the web app guide). Run ok init in your project: it registers the OpenKnowledge MCP server with GitHub Copilot CLI and the other editors it detects. Every ok start repairs the entry if it has drifted (it never adds one you removed).

ok init writes the MCP server to ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, or to $COPILOT_HOME/mcp-config.json when COPILOT_HOME is set. That machine-wide file is the one OpenKnowledge manages for Copilot, so it is where the entry goes. Copilot also reads the project .mcp.json OpenKnowledge writes for Claude Code, and a project-level definition of the same server takes precedence over the global one.

If the Copilot config directory does not exist yet, launch Copilot CLI once and rerun ok init so it can write the MCP configuration.

It also installs the project skill at .github/skills/open-knowledge/SKILL.md so Copilot can follow the project's OpenKnowledge workflow.

Folder trust

The machine-wide entry ok init writes to ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, or to $COPILOT_HOME/mcp-config.json when COPILOT_HOME is set, is not affected by folder trust.

The project .mcp.json is a different path. Copilot loads project-level MCP servers only after you confirm folder trust on first launch, and skips them silently in untrusted folders, including under copilot -p, which cannot show the trust prompt.

When you launch copilot in a folder for the first time it asks whether you trust it. Trusting it for the current session is enough to load the project .mcp.json; choosing to remember the folder makes the grant permanent, as does adding it to Copilot's trusted directories. See GitHub's Configuring Copilot CLI docs for the trusted-directories setting.

GITHUB_COPILOT_PROMPT_MODE_WORKSPACE_MCP=true overrides the skip, but it is an environment variable, not a per-folder grant: while it is set, copilot -p starts project MCP servers declared by any untrusted repository it runs in.

Open with AI

In OpenKnowledge's docked terminal, select GitHub Copilot from the new-chat picker. It starts Copilot CLI in interactive mode with context for the current project. The option is hidden when the copilot executable is not installed.

Verify

Open the project in GitHub Copilot CLI and ask:

“List the first 5 documents you come across in this project.”Copy

GitHub Copilot CLI should call the OpenKnowledge exec tool and respond with some of your documents.

If you don't see the tool, restart Copilot CLI. If ok init reported that your config was left unchanged, fix the reported config issue and rerun ok init. To add it manually, create an open-knowledge entry in mcpServers that runs ok mcp.