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Discover APIs with GitHub Copilot Chat and Azure API Center extension for Visual Studio Code (preview)

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To discover APIs and API definitions in your Azure API center, you can use a GitHub Copilot Chat agent with the Azure API Center extension for Visual Studio Code. The @apicenter chat agent and other Azure API Center extension capabilities help developers discover, try, and consume APIs from their API centers.

GitHub Copilot Chat provides a conversational interface for accomplishing developer tasks in Visual Studio Code. It uses GitHub Copilot to provide code completions and suggestions based on the context of your conversation. For more information, see Getting started with GitHub Copilot.

Note

The Azure API Center extension for Visual Studio Code and the @apicenter chat agent are in preview. Currently this feature is only available in the Visual Studio Code insiders build.

Prerequisites

Setup

  1. Install the Azure API Center extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace in the Visual Studio Code insiders build.
  2. Install the GitHub Copilot extension and GitHub Copilot Chat extension.
  3. In Visual Studio Code, in the Activity Bar on the left, select API Center.
  4. If you're not signed in to your Azure account, select Sign in to Azure..., and follow the prompts to sign in. Select an Azure account with the API center (or API centers) you wish to view APIs from. You can also filter on specific subscriptions if you have many to view from.

Explore your API centers

Your API center resources appear in the tree view on the left-hand side. Expand an API center resource to see APIs, versions, definitions, environments, and deployments.

Screenshot of Azure API Center tree view in Visual Studio Code.

Note

Currently, all APIs and other entities shown in the tree view are read-only. You can't create, update, or delete entities in an API center from the extension.

Search for APIs using GitHub Copilot Chat

Use GitHub Copilot Chat to search for APIs and API definitions based on semantic search queries.

  1. In Visual Studio Code, in the Activity Bar, select GitHub Copilot Chat.

  2. Type @apicenter / to see available commands:

    • @apicenter /list - Lists available APIs
    • @apicenter /search - Searches APIs and API specifications

  3. Search for APIs in Copilot Chat. For example, enter @apicenter /search weather to find APIs related to weather.

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