Let's Check Out Copilot CLI - Dev Leader Weekly 124

TL; DR:

I like it even as an IDE user!
Powerful and integrates with Github ecosystem
Check out the live stream on Monday, January 26th at 7:00 PM Pacific!

GitHub Copilot CLI's New Power Moves

If you spend time in the terminal, you know the sweet feeling of getting into flow and staying in flow. The latest GitHub Copilot CLI updates are built to let us do exactly that. Copilot CLI is essentially your AI pair programmer, right there in bash or Powershell. It "brings AI-powered coding assistance directly to your command line", meaning it can not only write code but execute shell commands (with your permission) as part of its work. Think of it like chatting with a teammate named "Copilot" who never gets tired, works in the dark, and doesn't mind repeating themselves.

Ever since Copilot CLI launched in public preview, the team has been on a tear adding features to make it more useful and predictable. The January 2026 changelog sums it up nicely: Copilot CLI "continues to push the boundaries of agentic AI assistance in your terminal". We've now got powerful new reasoning models, built-in planning tools, better context management, and even first-class GitHub CLI integration. These features can seriously upgrade your dev workflow. Let's walk through what's new, why it matters, and how you can make Copilot CLI work for you.

If you're curious beyond the article, I have been starting to create videos around my usage with Copilot CLI, starting off with some basics on model selection:

Plan Mode: Map It Out Before You Code

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