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Configure GitHub Copilot, via its Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) support, to use Eden AI for access to 500+ models behind a single API key.

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Overview

GitHub Copilot’s BYOK feature lets you point its chat experience at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Routing it through Eden AI gives you:
  • 500+ models: switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini, and more without leaving Copilot
  • One API key: unified billing and monitoring across providers
  • Provider failover: keep working when an upstream provider has an incident
BYOK powers Copilot Chat, agent mode, and the Copilot CLI. It does not apply to inline code completions (ghost text), semantic search, or embeddings — those keep running on GitHub’s own infrastructure and still require a GitHub account.

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Prerequisites

  • An active GitHub Copilot subscription (Individual, Business, or Enterprise)
  • For the chat path: VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension
  • For the CLI path: the Copilot CLI (install & BYOK docs)
  • Eden AI API key from app.edenai.run → API Keys

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VS Code Copilot Chat

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1. Open the Language Models editor

Open the Command Palette and run Chat: Manage Language Models, or click the model picker in the Chat view and choose Manage Models….

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2. Add Eden AI as a Custom Endpoint

Select Add Models → Custom Endpoint, then:
  1. Enter a group name (e.g. Eden AI)
  2. Provide a display name and paste your Eden AI API key
  3. For API type, choose Chat Completions
The key is stored securely by VS Code — it is not written into the config file.

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3. Declare your models in chatLanguageModels.json

VS Code opens chatLanguageModels.json so you can list the Eden AI models to expose. Set each entry’s url to Eden AI’s chat completions endpoint and use the provider/model ID format: 
[
  {
    "id": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
    "name": "Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Eden AI)",
    "url": "https://api.edenai.run/v3/chat/completions",
    "toolCalling": true,
    "vision": true,
    "maxInputTokens": 200000,
    "maxOutputTokens": 8192
  },
  {
    "id": "openai/gpt-4o",
    "name": "GPT-4o (Eden AI)",
    "url": "https://api.edenai.run/v3/chat/completions",
    "toolCalling": true,
    "vision": true,
    "maxInputTokens": 128000,
    "maxOutputTokens": 16384
  }
]
Set "toolCalling": true for any model you want to use in agent mode.

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4. Use it

Reload the window, open Copilot Chat, and pick your Eden AI model from the model picker. It is now available in chat and agent mode.

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Copilot CLI

The Copilot CLI reads BYOK settings from environment variables. Set them before launching: 
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE="openai"
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL="https://api.edenai.run/v3"
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY="YOUR_EDEN_AI_API_KEY"
export COPILOT_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5"
Then launch the CLI: 
copilot
Keep COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE set to openai because Eden AI is OpenAI-compatible — leave it as openai even when the model itself is from Anthropic or Google. The CLI appends /chat/completions to the base URL itself, so COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL ends at /v3. Use a model that supports tool calling and streaming (most chat models on Eden AI do).

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Organization-wide BYOK (Enterprise)

Enterprise and Business administrators can configure an OpenAI-compatible provider for the whole organization (public preview) instead of per-developer setup. Add a provider of type OpenAI, set the base URL to https://api.edenai.run/v3, and supply your Eden AI key. See GitHub’s BYOK documentation.

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Switching models

Eden AI uses the provider/model format. In VS Code, add more entries to chatLanguageModels.json; in the CLI, change COPILOT_MODEL: 
export COPILOT_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5"   # strong general coding
export COPILOT_MODEL="openai/gpt-4o"                 # fast, multimodal
export COPILOT_MODEL="google/gemini-2.5-pro"         # long context
Browse the full catalog via List Models or GET https://api.edenai.run/v3/models.

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What BYOK covers

FeatureUses Eden AI?
Copilot Chat✅
Agent mode / custom agents✅ (model needs tool calling)
Copilot CLI✅
Inline completions (ghost text)❌ GitHub-hosted
Semantic search / embeddings❌ GitHub-hosted

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Troubleshooting

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Authentication errors

Verify your key works against Eden AI directly: 
curl -X POST https://api.edenai.run/v3/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_EDEN_AI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "ping"}]}'

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Model not found

Use the full provider/model string (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5, not claude-sonnet-4-5). Confirm the ID is in the catalog returned by GET /v3/models.

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Model doesn’t appear in VS Code

Make sure you chose Chat Completions as the API type, that chatLanguageModels.json is valid JSON, and reload the window. Custom Endpoint requires a recent VS Code build (it replaced the older “OpenAI Compatible” option) — update VS Code if you don’t see it.

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Connection issues

Confirm the base URL is exactly https://api.edenai.run/v3 (and the VS Code url field is https://api.edenai.run/v3/chat/completions). Check Eden AI status at app-edenai.instatus.com.

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Next Steps