Copilot Cockpit works best when you treat it as one workflow stack with three layers:

1. Planning and triage in Todo Cockpit
2. Execution and scheduling through Tasks and Jobs
3. Optional tool/control-plane integration through Research, MCP, and repo-local agent surfaces

The recommended path is: start with a Todo, use Research when context is missing, then promote approved work into a Task or Job.

1. Open Copilot Cockpit from the activity bar or with Copilot Cockpit: Create Scheduled Prompt (GUI).
2. Start in How To Use if you are new to the extension, or click the top-bar Intro Tutorial button for the same walkthrough.
3. Capture or refine work in Todo Cockpit. A Todo is the planning artifact and intake surface.
4. Use Research if the work still needs exploratory context, outside evidence, or benchmarked iteration.
5. Move approved work into ready, then promote it into a Task for one executable unit or a Job for an orchestrated or scheduled run.
6. Open Settings to configure repo-local defaults and integrations. Use the top-bar Plan Integration button only when you want optional control-plane extensions such as MCP, skills, starter agents, or the GitHub inbox flow.

If you want GitHub intake to land directly in Todo Cockpit, the shortest path is:

1. Open Settings and enable GitHub Integration.
2. Fill in Owner, Repository, and keep the default API base URL for GitHub.com unless you intentionally need a different endpoint.
3. Make sure VS Code is already signed in to GitHub, or to GitHub Enterprise when you use a non-default API base URL.
4. Save the settings, then use Refresh GitHub Inbox.
5. Switch to Todo Cockpit and use Create Todo or Create Todo + Review from the cached inbox at the top of the board.

The GitHub inbox is repo-local, uses cached manual refreshes, and resolves credentials from VS Code's built-in GitHub authentication providers when you refresh. New saves no longer store or reuse a GitHub token in workspace config. For the full behavior and limits, see GitHub Integration.

• Use Todo Cockpit when the work still needs planning, comments, approval, or triage.
• Use Tasks when one prompt and one schedule are enough for one executable unit.
• Use Jobs when the work needs ordered stages, orchestration, or pause checkpoints.
• Use Research when the work needs exploratory context or measured improvement before execution.

• Add MCP, repo-local skills, or starter agents after the default path is working.
• Treat those capabilities as control-plane extensions, not as mandatory setup for first use.

If you want the tab-by-tab walkthrough, continue to Feature Tour.

Skip toy prompts. Start with one recurring loop that would still be worth keeping after the demo.

• For a small project, use an opportunity scout, a delivery-risk watch, and a knowledge packager, then stop at a review checkpoint.
• For a company team, use the same pattern for product signals, security and release readiness, support queues, or operations follow-up.
• If you also want to show the Research surface, add one benchmarked profile that scores onboarding or prompt quality against a simple command before you promote anything into execution.

Onboarding Example Coverage Research is the simplest version of that pattern: log the onboarding gap in Todo Cockpit, use Research to gather examples or benchmark the docs, then turn the approved next step into Tasks for a direct doc pass or Jobs for a staged follow-up. Use it when you want a real onboarding loop that still stops at a review checkpoint before autonomy expands.

That keeps the demo honest: the proof is useful output plus explicit review, not a claim that the system should run unchecked.

1. Open VS Code and go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).
2. Search for Copilot Cockpit.
3. Click Install and reload VS Code.

Or install directly from the Visual Studio Marketplace page.

1. Download the latest copilot-cockpit-X.X.X.vsix from the GitHub releases page.
2. Run Extensions: Install from VSIX... in VS Code.
3. Select the VSIX and reload VS Code.
4. Disable or uninstall yamapan.copilot-scheduler if it is still installed.
5. After reload, Copilot Cockpit creates or repairs repo-local support files such as .vscode/mcp.json for the current workspace.

1. Build the package with npm run package:vsix.
2. Install it with one of these commands:

npm run install:vsix
npm run install:vsix:insiders
npm run install:vsix:both

1. If the VS Code shell command is unavailable, use Extensions: Install from VSIX... and select the generated package manually.
2. Reload VS Code.
3. Disable or uninstall yamapan.copilot-scheduler if it is still installed.

Use Feature Tour for the slower tab-by-tab explanation.

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