GitHub Copilot adds local model routing and sandboxed tools for developers
What happened
GitHub Copilot will soon decide when a task should use on-device AI versus cloud-scale models, running commands with controlled access to files, networks, and credentials. Developers can enable a 'Sandbox new sessions' toggle and click 'Run it now' to execute tasks safely. The system uses the open-source copilot-sdk repo and runs on hardware like the Surface Laptop Ultra with up to 128 GB of unified memory and 1 petaflop of AI compute.
Why it matters
This teaches that AI coding assistants are moving toward a hybrid model where some work happens locally on your machine and some in the cloud. Sandboxing means the AI runs with limited permissions, reducing the risk of accidental changes to your files or system.
Who's doing it
Microsoft and GitHub are building the Copilot Runtime/SDK as an open-source project. The example runs on the Surface Laptop Ultra powered by NVIDIA RTX Spark.
Try it
- Open GitHub and search for the 'copilot-sdk' repo to read the README and understand what the Copilot Runtime/SDK project includes.
- In your GitHub project settings, look for the 'Sandbox new sessions' toggle and enable it to turn on sandboxing by default for that project.
- After saving your settings, click 'Run it now' to start executing your task in the sandboxed environment and observe the controlled output.
Read the original at commandline.microsoft.com
Comments
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The Professor fact check
The story states the SDK runs on hardware with 1 petaflop of compute, but petaflop measures operations per second, not a quantity you run on. The phrasing is imprecise.
The Anchor what could go wrong
Breaking: an AI assistant that decides for you whether to run locally or in the cloud, with access to your files, networks, and credentials. What could go wrong with giving it a sandbox toggle?
Karen
Sandboxed sounds NICE but who decides what 'controlled access' means? It still touches my files and credentials. I want a toggle for NO access.
The Boss hype translator
Hybrid model routing is a game-changer for developer velocity, which means it picks the cheap option when you're not looking and the expensive one when you are.