Copilot4Eclipse 1.4: What’s New

Today we released Copilot4Eclipse 1.4 and we are pretty jazzed about its new and updated features!  If you are new to the Copilot4Eciipse plugin you can always find the latest version available for installation from the Eclipse Marketplace.  Let’s take a look! 

Eclipse Platform Compatibility Notice

Before talking about the cool new features we wanted to share that we are adopting a 12 month backward compatibility window for new Copilot4Eclipse releases. With this, Copilot4Eclipse 1.4 is compatible on Eclipse platforms beginning with v4.30 (2023-12) through the current Eclipse v4.35 (2025-01). 

What’s New in Copilot4Eclipse 1.4?

The 1.4 update brings new and updated features; some you have specifically requested others are purely inspired.  Here are the highlights:

• Chat Panel Makeover
• New Chat Models
• A New Model for Code Completions
• Copilot Extensions
• Chat – Quick Resubmit

Let’s dive in!

Chat Panel Makeover

We start with the Chat Panel improvements. Taking inspiration from the VSCode Copilot extension we redesigned the Chat Panel to be more functional and intuitive.

1. Current-File Context Control:  Use this control to include or exclude the current Editor file as part of the Chat context.
2. GitHub Copilot Extensions Menu: View and select the extensions that have been added to your GitHub account.
3. Add File References Control: Quick search and add files to the Chat context.
4. Slash Commands Menu: Choose from a set of quick run commands
5. Chat Model Selection Menu: Choose the language model for processing your Chat requests (prompts)
6. Smart Scroll to Bottom Button: This button serves to inform when new messages are available. Clicking the button scrolls to the most recent message.

New Chat Models

In addition to the 4o Chat language model, GitHub Copilot recently began introducing additional models such as Claude 3.5 and 3.7, o3-mini and Gemini 2.0 Flash. Copilot4Eclipse 1.4 enables you to select the model to use for processing Chat request. You can change the model anytime during your Chat session.  

Note that access permission to each model or model-family must be granted through the GitHub Copilot Dashboard.

A New Model For Code Completions

We couldn’t let the Chat Panel have all the model-fun. You can now customize the language model that Copilot4Eclipse uses for generating code completions. In addition to default GPT-3.5 Turbo model we have added access to the new advanced GPT-4o Copilot completion generation model.

The completion model is configured on the main Copilot4Eclipse Preference Page. 

From the Copilot menu select Configure Completion Model… 

From the Copilot4Eclipse main Preferences Page, use the Completion Model control to select the code generation model. Once the Completion Model choice is saved, the model is immediately active.

Copilot Extensions

You can now use Copilot Extensions in your chat requests. If you are not familiar with Copilot Extensions, think of them as integrations of external data and services for use with in Copilot, aka Agents. You can implement your own private Copilot extension or install public extensions available from the Copilot Extensions Marketplace.

Install extensions on your GitHub account from the GitHub Dashboard. Once installed, extensions are visible in the Chat Panel by clicking the @ button.

The following screenshot is from a demo using the Mermaid Charts Extension to generate a Class Diagram of 2 Java classes. The Mermain Charts response includes a link to a rendering of the Class Diagram markup.

Chat – Quick Resubmit

We introduced a new convenient Resubmit button for the most recent Copilot responses. When you click the Resubmit button the System response is deleted and a new request with the former prompt is submitted to Copilot.

Other Stuff

In addition to the above marquee features there have been many small improvements and bug fixes to improve the overall quality of Copilot4Eclipse.

Last But Not Least…

Thank you, Eclipse Community, for the encouraging feedback and support.  Because of you, Copilot4Eclipse has risen to the #6 spot on the Eclipse Marketplace’s Top 10 Most Popular Plugins. 

Happy Coding!