Disable GH Copilot per project: Project-specific Copilot settings in IntelliJ via a configuration file

[frankkriegl-zero]

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Copilot Feature Area

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It would be highly beneficial to have the ability to enable or disable GitHub Copilot for specific IntelliJ projects. This could be achieved by introducing a project-level configuration file (e.g., .ghcopilot) that contains properties to control Copilot's behavior. For example, a property like disable_completions=true could disable Copilot completions when the project is opened in IntelliJ.

This feature would allow developers to:

• Safeguard sensitive data in projects where Copilot should not be active.
• Continue using Copilot in other IntelliJ projects or instances simultaneously without manual toggling.

Use Case:

To comply with different regulations (data privacy, compliance, contribution guidelines, etc), one currently needs to disable Copilot globally in IntelliJ. However, this prevents developers from using Copilot in other IntelliJ projects for development purposes. A project-specific configuration would solve this issue by allowing us to disable Copilot only for the sensitive project while keeping it active for others.

Proposed Solution:

Introduce a .ghcopilot configuration file at the project root or in the .github/ folder.
Allow properties like disable_completions=true to control Copilot's behavior when the project is opened.
Ensure that Copilot settings are applied only to the specific project, without affecting other open IntelliJ instances or projects. OF course, this should also be available for VSCode, etc.

Benefits:

• Improved workflow by eliminating the need for manual toggling of Copilot. (Currently, users also tend to forget disabling the plugin/completions, regularly.)
• Enhanced data privacy and compliance for sensitive projects.
• Greater flexibility for developers working on multiple projects simultaneously.

The basic idea was already suggested in a thread of another discussion which had a slightly different scope.

I created this discussion with more context to hopefully result in a feature request that makes it to the roadmap soon.
Please upvote if you also have this requirement.

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[kysec0]

I manage privacy and compliance with AI governance laws (and client requirements) and there is an increasing number of clients who, because of changing AI laws and the types of applications being developed, are demanding that AI generated code is not used in specific projects. A config file at the project level to manage copilot behaviour would fix the current compliance challenge.

[keller-mark]

I would like to be able to opt-out of copilot/AI on a per-repo basis. For example, this would mean that when disabled for a repo, I would not see the auto-generated commit descriptions when editing files via the GitHub web interface