GitHub Copilot is a terminal AI agent that runs on your Copilot subscription; HagiCode is a desktop workbench that uses it as an executor. This page compares what each does, what they cost, and when Copilot alone is enough.
GitHub Copilot is GitHub's terminal AI coding agent: you run copilot in a repo, and it reads, edits and runs commands using your Copilot subscription. HagiCode is a desktop and web workbench that launches Copilot (or one of 15 other Agent CLIs) as the executor behind its sessions, proposals and commits. It does not replace Copilot and it does not sell models.
If you want one agent in one terminal, close to GitHub issues and pull requests, stay with Copilot alone. HagiCode earns its place when you run several tasks at once, want spec-driven proposals, or prefer a visual workspace on top of the same Copilot login.
| Dimension | GitHub Copilot | HagiCode |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Terminal AI coding agent from GitHub, part of the Copilot product line | Desktop and web AI programming workbench that drives Agent CLIs you install |
| Interface and platforms | Terminal UI started with copilot; Linux, macOS, Windows (PowerShell or WSL) | Desktop app for Windows, macOS, Linux; Docker Compose container; Microsoft Store edition |
| Pricing and licensing | Needs a Copilot plan: Free tier, or paid Pro (from $10/month as of October 2026), Pro+, Max, Business, Enterprise | Desktop and Container free; Store edition free with optional one-time TurboEngine purchase |
| Model and provider access | Pick models with /model, including Claude and GPT families; bring-your-own provider via environment variables | Hosts no models; uses whatever Copilot is signed in with, so model cost stays on your Copilot plan |
| Parallel work | One conversation per terminal; delegates to built-in and custom sub-agents | Several concurrent sessions across repos, managed from an Agents view |
| Spec and planning workflow | Plan mode, toggled with Shift+Tab inside a session | OpenSpec proposals: propose, validate, apply, archive; 3 concurrent on free editions, 32 with TurboEngine |
| Git and commit handling | Runs Git commands and talks to GitHub.com from the session | AI-composed commits, Git management, GitHub integration, embedded Code Server editor |
| Setup effort | One install command, then /login or a token; no extra app | Install HagiCode Desktop, and have Copilot installed and signed in first |
| Best for | Terminal-first developers working in GitHub issues and pull requests | Developers juggling several tasks or repos who want a GUI and a spec discipline |
Copilot is built by the company that hosts your repository, so asking it about issues, pull requests and GitHub.com is a first-class use rather than a plugin. It signs in with /login, or with a fine-grained personal access token that has the "Copilot Requests" permission, passed as GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN, which is convenient for scripts.
Switch models mid-session with /model or start with --model. GitHub lists Claude and GPT families, and some newer models offer a 1 million token context window with configurable reasoning levels, which use more credits. You can also point the CLI at an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic or a local model such as Ollama through environment variables.
Run copilot for an interactive session, or copilot -p "<prompt>" for a single scripted run, with explicit approval flags for file changes and commands. That makes it usable in shell scripts and CI, which a GUI workbench is not suited for.
MCP servers add data sources and tools, custom agents specialise Copilot for a task, and built-in specialised agents take common jobs. Content exclusion applies to Business and Enterprise users, so organisations can set policy centrally. Experimental features such as Autopilot sit behind --experimental.
copilot -p in CI.HagiCode sits on top of the CLI you already have. It starts copilot for you through the GitHub Copilot SDK, so your install, GitHub login and Copilot plan are unchanged, and usage still counts against that plan.
Nothing is locked in: your repositories stay ordinary Git repositories and you can run copilot in a terminal at any time.
npm install -g @github/copilot, brew install copilot-cli, or winget install GitHub.Copilot) and sign in with /login.Copilot is one conversation per terminal. In HagiCode you can keep several Copilot sessions running across repositories and follow them from an Agents view, instead of juggling tabs.
Before Copilot edits anything, you can run a propose, validate, apply and archive loop. The proposal becomes a reviewable record of why a change was made, which plain chat history is not.
After a Copilot session HagiCode can compose the commit message from the diff, and the embedded Code Server lets you inspect or fix the result without leaving the workbench.
Monospecs groups several repositories into one workspace so Copilot sessions can span them; Vault keeps notes and decisions that outlive a single session.
Tool calls from Copilot and other agents are shown in the same layout, and an optional TokenMonitor can show usage in the status bar. HagiCode does not change how Copilot is billed.
npm install -g @github/copilot, brew install copilot-cli, winget install GitHub.Copilot, or curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install | bash. Then start copilot and sign in with /login.HagiCode is an agentic coding workspace. Rich, convenient UI interactions make planning, agent execution, and project work approachable and easy to navigate, creating an engaging development experience.
Explore an engaging development experience through rich, convenient UI interactions.
HagiCode is an agentic coding workspace. OpenSpec workflows plan the change, multi-agent execution carries it out, and Hero Scenario makes the long run visible, so ideas become shipped software.
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