AI-Assisted Development – One Year with GitHub Copilot

#ai #githubcopilot #productivity #codingtools

Note: This article was originally published on June 1, 2024. Some information may be outdated.

AI pair-programming tools are no longer hype. After using GitHub Copilot daily for over a year, I can say it’s changed how I code - and not just in small ways.

What Copilot Helps With

Here’s where Copilot saves me time every day:

Boilerplate - It writes out useEffect, useState, API call scaffolding, even basic CSS and Tailwind classes.
Unknown syntax - If I vaguely remember how to write a Prisma query or a new regex pattern, it fills the gap.
Test cases - I write a function, and it often autocompletes good test scenarios using Vitest or Jest.
String manipulation or parsing - These are boring. Copilot makes them fast.
Markdown, README, docs - I don’t love writing these, but Copilot makes suggestions to speed it up.

What Copilot Gets Wrong

Copilot isn’t magic. It guesses.

It sometimes makes things up.
You still need to verify logic and types.
It might pull in patterns that are outdated or not idiomatic.
It doesn’t understand the big picture of your code - only what’s around your cursor.

How to Use It Well

Be active - Treat Copilot like a junior pair. Let it start, but you edit.
Edit heavily - Use suggestions as a base. Don’t trust without reading.
Avoid for sensitive or license-restricted code - Generated output might not be safe to copy blindly.