Copilot API Proxy

[!WARNING] This is a reverse-engineered proxy of GitHub Copilot API. It is not supported by GitHub, and may break unexpectedly. Use at your own risk.

[!WARNING] GitHub Security Notice:
Excessive automated or scripted use of Copilot (including rapid or bulk requests, such as via automated tools) may trigger GitHub's abuse-detection systems.
You may receive a warning from GitHub Security, and further anomalous activity could result in temporary suspension of your Copilot access.

GitHub prohibits use of their servers for excessive automated bulk activity or any activity that places undue burden on their infrastructure.

Please review:

• GitHub Acceptable Use Policies
• GitHub Copilot Terms

Use this proxy responsibly to avoid account restrictions.

Note: If you are using opencode, you do not need this project. Opencode supports GitHub Copilot provider out of the box.

Project Overview

A reverse-engineered proxy for the GitHub Copilot API that exposes it as an OpenAI and Anthropic compatible service. This allows you to use GitHub Copilot with any tool that supports the OpenAI Chat Completions API or the Anthropic Messages API, including to power Claude Code.

Features

• OpenAI & Anthropic Compatibility: Exposes GitHub Copilot as an OpenAI-compatible (/v1/responses, /v1/chat/completions, /v1/models, /v1/embeddings) and Anthropic-compatible (/v1/messages) API.
• Claude Code Integration: Easily configure and launch Claude Code to use Copilot as its backend with a simple command-line flag (--claude-code).
• Usage Dashboard: A web-based dashboard to monitor your Copilot API usage, view quotas, and see detailed statistics.
• Rate Limit Control: Manage API usage with rate-limiting options (--rate-limit) and a waiting mechanism (--wait) to prevent errors from rapid requests.
• Manual Request Approval: Manually approve or deny each API request for fine-grained control over usage (--manual).
• Token Visibility: Option to display GitHub and Copilot tokens during authentication and refresh for debugging (--show-token).
• Flexible Authentication: Authenticate interactively or provide a GitHub token directly, suitable for CI/CD environments.
• Support for Different Account Types: Works with individual, business, and enterprise GitHub Copilot plans.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7654b383-669d-4eb9-b23c-06d7aefee8c5

Prerequisites

• Bun (>= 1.2.x)
• GitHub account with Copilot subscription (individual, business, or enterprise)

Installation

To install dependencies, run:

bun install

Using with Docker

Build image

docker build -t copilot-api .

Run the container

# Create a directory on your host to persist the GitHub token and related data
mkdir -p ./copilot-data

# Run the container with a bind mount to persist the token
# This ensures your authentication survives container restarts

docker run -p 4141:4141 -v $(pwd)/copilot-data:/root/.local/share/copilot-api copilot-api

Note: The GitHub token and related data will be stored in copilot-data on your host. This is mapped to /root/.local/share/copilot-api inside the container, ensuring persistence across restarts.

Docker with Environment Variables

You can pass the GitHub token directly to the container using environment variables:

# Build with GitHub token
docker build --build-arg GH_TOKEN=your_github_token_here -t copilot-api .

# Run with GitHub token
docker run -p 4141:4141 -e GH_TOKEN=your_github_token_here copilot-api

# Run with additional options
docker run -p 4141:4141 -e GH_TOKEN=your_token copilot-api start --verbose --port 4141

Docker Compose Example

version: "3.8"
services:
  copilot-api:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "4141:4141"
    environment:
      - GH_TOKEN=your_github_token_here
    restart: unless-stopped

The Docker image includes:

• Multi-stage build for optimized image size
• Non-root user for enhanced security
• Health check for container monitoring
• Pinned base image version for reproducible builds

Using with npx

You can run the project directly using npx:

npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start

With options:

npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --port 8080

For authentication only:

npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest auth

Command Structure

Copilot API now uses a subcommand structure with these main commands:

• start: Start the Copilot API server. This command will also handle authentication if needed.
• auth: Run GitHub authentication flow without starting the server. This is typically used if you need to generate a token for use with the --github-token option, especially in non-interactive environments.
• check-usage: Show your current GitHub Copilot usage and quota information directly in the terminal (no server required).
• debug: Display diagnostic information including version, runtime details, file paths, and authentication status. Useful for troubleshooting and support.

Command Line Options

Start Command Options

The following command line options are available for the start command:

Auth Command Options

Debug Command Options

Configuration (config.json)

• Location: ~/.local/share/copilot-api/config.json (Linux/macOS) or %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\copilot-api\config.json (Windows).
• Default shape:

  {
    "extraPrompts": {
      "gpt-5-mini": "<built-in exploration prompt>",
      "gpt-5.1-codex-max": "<built-in exploration prompt>"
    },
    "smallModel": "gpt-5-mini",
    "modelReasoningEfforts": {
      "gpt-5-mini": "low"
    },
    "useFunctionApplyPatch": true,
    "compactUseSmallModel": true
  }

• extraPrompts: Map of model -> prompt appended to the first system prompt when translating Anthropic-style requests to Copilot. Use this to inject guardrails or guidance per model. Missing default entries are auto-added without overwriting your custom prompts.
• smallModel: Fallback model used for tool-less warmup messages (e.g., Claude Code probe requests) to avoid spending premium requests; defaults to gpt-5-mini.
• modelReasoningEfforts: Per-model reasoning.effort sent to the Copilot Responses API. Allowed values are none, minimal, low, medium, high, and xhigh. If a model isn’t listed, high is used by default.
• useFunctionApplyPatch: When true, the server will convert any custom tool named apply_patch in Responses payloads into an OpenAI-style function tool (type: "function") with a parameter schema so assistants can call it using function-calling semantics to edit files. Set to false to leave tools unchanged. Defaults to true.
• compactUseSmallModel: When true, detected "compact" requests (e.g., from Claude Code or Opencode compact mode) will automatically use the configured smallModel to avoid consuming premium model usage for short/background tasks. Defaults to true.

Edit this file to customize prompts or swap in your own fast model. Restart the server (or rerun the command) after changes so the cached config is refreshed.

API Endpoints

The server exposes several endpoints to interact with the Copilot API. It provides OpenAI-compatible endpoints and now also includes support for Anthropic-compatible endpoints, allowing for greater flexibility with different tools and services.

OpenAI Compatible Endpoints

These endpoints mimic the OpenAI API structure.

Anthropic Compatible Endpoints

These endpoints are designed to be compatible with the Anthropic Messages API.

Usage Monitoring Endpoints

New endpoints for monitoring your Copilot usage and quotas.

Example Usage

Using with npx:

# Basic usage with start command
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start

# Run on custom port with verbose logging
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --port 8080 --verbose

# Use with a business plan GitHub account
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --account-type business

# Use with an enterprise plan GitHub account
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --account-type enterprise

# Enable manual approval for each request
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --manual

# Set rate limit to 30 seconds between requests
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --rate-limit 30

# Wait instead of error when rate limit is hit
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --rate-limit 30 --wait

# Provide GitHub token directly
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --github-token ghp_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

# Run only the auth flow
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest auth

# Run auth flow with verbose logging
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest auth --verbose

# Show your Copilot usage/quota in the terminal (no server needed)
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest check-usage

# Display debug information for troubleshooting
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest debug

# Display debug information in JSON format
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest debug --json

# Initialize proxy from environment variables (HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, etc.)
npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --proxy-env

Using the Usage Viewer

After starting the server, a URL to the Copilot Usage Dashboard will be displayed in your console. This dashboard is a web interface for monitoring your API usage.

1. Start the server. For example, using npx:

   npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start

2. The server will output a URL to the usage viewer. Copy and paste this URL into your browser. It will look something like this: https://ericc-ch.github.io/copilot-api?endpoint=http://localhost:4141/usage
   • If you use the start.bat script on Windows, this page will open automatically.

The dashboard provides a user-friendly interface to view your Copilot usage data:

• API Endpoint URL: The dashboard is pre-configured to fetch data from your local server endpoint via the URL query parameter. You can change this URL to point to any other compatible API endpoint.
• Fetch Data: Click the "Fetch" button to load or refresh the usage data. The dashboard will automatically fetch data on load.
• Usage Quotas: View a summary of your usage quotas for different services like Chat and Completions, displayed with progress bars for a quick overview.
• Detailed Information: See the full JSON response from the API for a detailed breakdown of all available usage statistics.
• URL-based Configuration: You can also specify the API endpoint directly in the URL using a query parameter. This is useful for bookmarks or sharing links. For example: https://ericc-ch.github.io/copilot-api?endpoint=http://your-api-server/usage

Using with Claude Code

This proxy can be used to power Claude Code, an experimental conversational AI assistant for developers from Anthropic.

There are two ways to configure Claude Code to use this proxy:

Interactive Setup with --claude-code flag

To get started, run the start command with the --claude-code flag:

npx @jeffreycao/copilot-api@latest start --claude-code

You will be prompted to select a primary model and a "small, fast" model for background tasks. After selecting the models, a command will be copied to your clipboard. This command sets the necessary environment variables for Claude Code to use the proxy.

Paste and run this command in a new terminal to launch Claude Code.

Manual Configuration with settings.json

Alternatively, you can configure Claude Code by creating a .claude/settings.json file in your project's root directory. This file should contain the environment variables needed by Claude Code. This way you don't need to run the interactive setup every time.

Here is an example .claude/settings.json file:

{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:4141",
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "dummy",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "gpt-5.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "gpt-5.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "gpt-5-mini",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL": "gpt-5-mini",
    "DISABLE_NON_ESSENTIAL_MODEL_CALLS": "1",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC": "1",
    "BASH_MAX_TIMEOUT_MS": "600000",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_ATTRIBUTION_HEADER": "0",
    "CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROMPT_SUGGESTION": "false"
  },
  "permissions": {
    "deny": [
      "WebSearch"
    ]
  }
}

You can find more options here: Claude Code settings

You can also read more about IDE integration here: Add Claude Code to your IDE

Running from Source

The project can be run from source in several ways:

Development Mode

bun run dev

Production Mode

bun run start

Usage Tips

• To avoid hitting GitHub Copilot's rate limits, you can use the following flags:
  • --manual: Enables manual approval for each request, giving you full control over when requests are sent.
  • --rate-limit <seconds>: Enforces a minimum time interval between requests. For example, copilot-api start --rate-limit 30 will ensure there's at least a 30-second gap between requests.
  • --wait: Use this with --rate-limit. It makes the server wait for the cooldown period to end instead of rejecting the request with an error. This is useful for clients that don't automatically retry on rate limit errors.
• If you have a GitHub business or enterprise plan account with Copilot, use the --account-type flag (e.g., --account-type business). See the official documentation for more details.

CLAUDE.md Recommended Content

Please include the following in CLAUDE.md (for Claude usage):

• Prohibited from directly asking questions to users, MUST use AskUserQuestion tool.
• Once you can confirm that the task is complete, MUST use AskUserQuestion tool to make user confirm. The user may respond with feedback if they are not satisfied with the result, which you can use to make improvements and try again.