Mnemonic zsh shortcuts for GitHub Copilot CLI with multiple AI models

copilot-cli-shortcuts.md

GitHub Copilot CLI Shortcuts for Zsh

Mnemonic shell functions for launching GitHub Copilot CLI with different models and modes.

Quick Reference

Prompt Mode	Interactive Mode	Model
p	pi	Claude Opus 4.5
ps	pis	Claude Sonnet 4.5
ph	pih	Claude Haiku 4.5
po	pio	OpenAI GPT-5.1
pg	pig	Gemini 3 Pro

Command	Action
pcon	Continue most recent session
pres	Resume with session picker

Mnemonics

• P = Pilot (Copilot)
• I = Interactive
• S = Sonnet
• H = Haiku
• O = OpenAI
• G = Gemini
• CON = Continue
• RES = Resume

Usage Examples

# Quick one-off prompt (exits after response)
p "explain this error message"
ph "what does this regex do"  # Use cheap/fast Haiku

# Interactive session (stays open for conversation)
pi                           # Start interactive with Opus
pis "help me refactor this"  # Start Sonnet with initial prompt

# Resume previous work
pcon                         # Continue most recent session
pres                         # Pick a session to resume

Installation

Add this to your .zshrc or a file in your zsh config directory:

# =============================================================================
# GitHub Copilot CLI Shortcuts
# =============================================================================
# Mnemonic: P = Pilot, PI = Pilot Interactive, PCON = continue, PRES = resume
# Suffixes: (none)=Opus, s=Sonnet, h=Haiku, o=OpenAI, g=Gemini
# =============================================================================

typeset -gA _PILOT_MODELS=(
  [_]="claude-opus-4.5"
  [s]="claude-sonnet-4.5"
  [h]="claude-haiku-4.5"
  [o]="gpt-5.1"
  [g]="gemini-3-pro-preview"
)

# Generate all pilot functions dynamically
for _suffix _model in ${(kv)_PILOT_MODELS}; do
  if [[ $_suffix == "_" ]]; then
    # Default (no suffix): p, pi
    eval "p()  { copilot --model $_model --allow-all-tools --silent -p \"\$@\"; }"
    eval "pi() { copilot --model $_model --allow-all-tools \${1:+-i} \"\$@\"; }"
  else
    # With suffix: ps, pis, ph, pih, etc.
    eval "p${_suffix}()  { copilot --model $_model --allow-all-tools --silent -p \"\$@\"; }"
    eval "pi${_suffix}() { copilot --model $_model --allow-all-tools \${1:+-i} \"\$@\"; }"
  fi
done
unset _suffix _model

# Session management (model-agnostic)
pcon() { copilot --allow-all-tools --continue; }
pres() { copilot --allow-all-tools --resume "$@"; }

Adding New Models

To add a new model, just add an entry to _PILOT_MODELS:

_PILOT_MODELS[c]="gpt-5.1-codex"  # Creates pc() and pic()

Then re-source your config.

Available Models (as of Dec 2025)

claude-sonnet-4.5, claude-haiku-4.5, claude-opus-4.5, claude-sonnet-4
gpt-5, gpt-5.1, gpt-5.1-codex-mini, gpt-5.1-codex-max, gpt-5.1-codex, gpt-5-mini, gpt-4.1
gemini-3-pro-preview

Prerequisites

• GitHub Copilot CLI installed (copilot command available)
• Zsh shell

Flags Used

Flag	Purpose
--model	Select the AI model
--allow-all-tools	Auto-approve tool usage
--silent	Output only the response (no stats)
-p	Non-interactive prompt mode
-i	Interactive mode with optional initial prompt
--continue	Resume most recent session
--resume	Pick a session to resume