GitHub Copilot

1. Install the Extension

• Install VS Code 1.116 or later.
• Make sure you have a GitHub Copilot subscription (Free / Pro / Enterprise — the free tier works).
• Install the extension from the Github repo.

2. Get a DeepSeek API Key

• Go to DeepSeek Platform and create an API key.
• Copy the key (it starts with sk-).

3. Configure the API Key in VS Code

• Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P).
• Run DeepSeek: Set API Key and paste your key.
• The key is stored securely in the OS keychain, never on disk.

4. Select the Model and Start Chatting

• Open Copilot Chat (Cmd+Shift+I / Ctrl+Shift+I).
• Click the model picker at the top-right of the chat panel.
• Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro or DeepSeek V4 Flash.
• Start chatting — agent mode, tool calling, and all Copilot features work out of the box.

Optional: Thinking Effort

In the model picker, click the gear icon next to a DeepSeek model to select the thinking effort:

• None — fastest, no reasoning
• High — balanced (default)
• Max — deep reasoning for complex tasks

Optional: Vision Support

DeepSeek V4 is a text-only model, but the extension handles images automatically. When you drop a screenshot into the chat, the extension will use another installed Copilot model (like Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GPT-4o) to describe the image content, and then send the description to DeepSeek. You can run DeepSeek: Set Vision Proxy Model to choose which model to use.