Your path

Step 1
Course map: plans, AI Credits, setting up Visual Studio 2026 and VS Code, the ENGAGE repository~1 h · A · Foundations
Step 2 · ~1.5 h · A · Foundations · by the author’s design, after “Course map: plans, AI Credits, setting up Visual Studio 2026 and VS Code, the ENGAGE repository”inside a rung the order is up to you
How Copilot works: prompt building, context, proxy filtering, post-processing, suggestion lifecycle
Responsible use: risks, hallucinated APIs, insecure patterns, output ownership, verification discipline
Step 3
Context engineering and prompting: #-references, participants, zero/few-shot, chat history, fresh sessions~1.5 h · A · Foundations · by the author’s design, after “How Copilot works: prompt building, context, proxy filtering, post-processing, suggestion lifecycle”
Governance: organisation policies, content exclusion and its gaps, public code filter, audit log, REST API for seats, AI Credit budgets~2 h · E · Governance & exam · by the author’s design, after “Responsible use: risks, hallucinated APIs, insecure patterns, output ownership, verification discipline”
Step 4
Visual Studio 2026 basics: inline suggestions, Next Edit Suggestions, Chat, Copilot Actions, commit messages~1 h · B · Visual Studio 2026 · by the author’s design, after “Context engineering and prompting: #-references, participants, zero/few-shot, chat history, fresh sessions”
VS Code: Chat, Plan, agent sessions, the Agents window, model choice and its price~1.5 h · C · VS Code & team customisation · by the author’s design, after “Context engineering and prompting: #-references, participants, zero/few-shot, chat history, fresh sessions”
Aldervane case: the February confidentiality incident — root causes across the whole course~1.5 h · E · Governance & exam · by the author’s design, after “Governance: organisation policies, content exclusion and its gaps, public code filter, audit log, REST API for seats, AI Credit budgets”
Copilot CLI essentials: install, interactive sessions, plan and autopilot, permissions, key commands, scripts and files~1 h · E · Governance & exam · by the author’s design, after “Context engineering and prompting: #-references, participants, zero/few-shot, chat history, fresh sessions”
Measuring impact and rolling Copilot out to a team: metrics, adoption, avoiding vendor numbers~1 h · Optional · Beyond the exam · by the author’s design, after “Governance: organisation policies, content exclusion and its gaps, public code filter, audit log, REST API for seats, AI Credit budgets”
Step 5
Agent mode in Visual Studio: tools, approvals, the build/test loop, Plan agent → Implement plan~1.5 h · B · Visual Studio 2026 · by the author’s design, after “Visual Studio 2026 basics: inline suggestions, Next Edit Suggestions, Chat, Copilot Actions, commit messages”
Team rules: copilot-instructions.md, *.instructions.md with applyTo, prompt files, organisation instructions — and what VS and the CLI see~1.5 h · C · VS Code & team customisation · by the author’s design, after “VS Code: Chat, Plan, agent sessions, the Agents window, model choice and its price”
Exam rehearsal: GH-300 formats, traps by domain, time management~1.5 h · E · Governance & exam · by the author’s design, after “Aldervane case: the February confidentiality incident — root causes across the whole course”, “Copilot CLI essentials: install, interactive sessions, plan and autopilot, permissions, key commands, scripts and files”
Copilot CLI at work: sessions, delegation to the cloud agent, plugins and custom agents~1 h · Optional · Beyond the exam · by the author’s design, after “Copilot CLI essentials: install, interactive sessions, plan and autopilot, permissions, key commands, scripts and files”
Models, BYOK and cost engineering under AI Credits~1 h · Optional · Beyond the exam · by the author’s design, after “VS Code: Chat, Plan, agent sessions, the Agents window, model choice and its price”
Step 6
Built-in agents in Visual Studio: @debugger, @profiler, @test, @git review~1.5 h · B · Visual Studio 2026 · by the author’s design, after “Agent mode in Visual Studio: tools, approvals, the build/test loop, Plan agent → Implement plan”
Custom agents and agent skills: team roles and procedures in the repository~2 h · C · VS Code & team customisation · by the author’s design, after “Team rules: copilot-instructions.md, *.instructions.md with applyTo, prompt files, organisation instructions — and what VS and the CLI see”
Testing with Copilot: unit and integration tests, edge cases, assertions — and why an agent's green tests prove little~1.5 h · D · Quality & teamwork · by the author’s design, after any one of these: “Agent mode in Visual Studio: tools, approvals, the build/test loop, Plan agent → Implement plan”, “VS Code: Chat, Plan, agent sessions, the Agents window, model choice and its price”
Copilot CLI in automation: non-interactive runs, preToolUse hooks, scripts and CI~1 h · Optional · Beyond the exam · by the author’s design, after “Copilot CLI at work: sessions, delegation to the cloud agent, plugins and custom agents”
Step 7
Lab: modernising Engage.Legacy.Import with @modernize (.NET Framework 4.8 → .NET 10)~2 h · B · Visual Studio 2026 · by the author’s design, after “Built-in agents in Visual Studio: @debugger, @profiler, @test, @git review”
MCP: connecting servers, trust, allowlists and registry policy, data leakage and prompt injection through tools~1.5 h · C · VS Code & team customisation · by the author’s design, after “Custom agents and agent skills: team roles and procedures in the repository”
Security and performance review: Review Selection, Copilot code review on pull requests, and judging AI findings~1.5 h · D · Quality & teamwork · by the author’s design, after “Testing with Copilot: unit and integration tests, edge cases, assertions — and why an agent's green tests prove little”
Hooks and guardrails in VS Code: agent hooks, scoped hooks in custom agents, failure semantics~1 h · Optional · Beyond the exam · by the author’s design, after “Custom agents and agent skills: team roles and procedures in the repository”
Step 8
The cloud agent: from issue to pull request, reviewing an agent's PR, and when delegation pays off~1.5 h · D · Quality & teamwork · by the author’s design, after “Security and performance review: Review Selection, Copilot code review on pull requests, and judging AI findings”
Step 9
Spaces, PR summaries and review standards in instruction files (and Spark, briefly)~1 h · D · Quality & teamwork · by the author’s design, after “The cloud agent: from issue to pull request, reviewing an agent's PR, and when delegation pays off”
Examfinal · in the browser, without the assistantclosed · enrol on the course

0 of 25 units done · ~29.5 h without the optional units, ~34.5 h with them

Security and performance review: Review Selection, Copilot code review on pull requests, and judging AI findings

What the unit teaches

Choose the right review surface: Review Selection, @git and Review changes with Copilot in Visual Studio, Generate Code > Review and Uncommitted Changes in VS Code, /review in the CLI, and Copilot code review on pull requests
Explain Copilot code review defaults: Comment reviews, one review per pull request, skipped files, no model switching, content exclusion respected
Configure automatic reviews and effort levels, and explain the announced Lite-to-Balanced default change and its cost
Describe preview approvals and their controls (enterprise, organisation, repository, file paths, dismissal on new commits)
Separate a correct security finding from an incorrect suggested fix and verify performance claims with measurement
Distinguish Copilot code review from Copilot Autofix and CodeQL code scanning

This unit is open to those enrolled

Enrolment is free — it is what lets the server remember your progress between sessions.