Visual Studio Code – Is there a command or keyboard shortcut to request the Copilot suggested commit message in the terminal?

Thanks to @Alfred Luu's idea of using keybindings.

When you are staging commits in the integrated terminal, it's useful to have copilot suggest the commit message, allow you to make any edits, and then commit- without needing the mouse and returning the focus to the terminal for further commands like git status and git log

To add this functionality:

1. In VSCode open your keyboard shortcuts to add a new shortcut. You can do this by pressing f1 and then type Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON). This will open your keybindings.json file where you can save your custom keybinds.

2. Inside, paste these three new keybindings:

    {
        "key": "ctrl+oem_1",
        "command" : "runCommands",
        "args": {
            "commands": [
                "workbench.view.scm",
                "github.copilot.git.generateCommitMessage",
            ]
        }
    },
    {
        "key" : "ctrl+oem_7",
        "command" : "runCommands",
        "args": {
            "commands": [
                "git.commit",
                "workbench.action.focusActiveEditorGroup",
            ]
        },
        "when": "!terminalFocus"
    },
    {
        "key": "ctrl+oem_7",
        "command": "runCommands",
        "args": {
            "commands": [
                "git.commit",
                "workbench.action.terminal.focus",
            ]
        },
        "when": "terminalFocus"
    }

3. Replace the "key" with the keyboard shortcut you want for the two behaviours.

   • E.g.: "key": "ctrl+m"

4. Save keybindings.json

How to use

My defaults are:

• Ctrl+; (Keybinding #1) -> Opens the source control view on the side, and gets copilot to fill in the suggested commit message in the box at the top.
• Ctrl+# (Keybinding #2 & #3) -> Commits the message currently in the box, and returns focus either to:
  • the Integrated Terminal, if the shortcut was pressed while the focus (your text cursor) was in the terminal.
  • The Editor (the file currently open).