Pairing ChatGPT and Copilot in My Workflow
I spend a lot of time switching between two AI tools:
- ChatGPT app for architectural thinking, debugging, and writing longer explanations.
- GitHub Copilot inside VS Code for in-the-moment code suggestions.
Together, they cover different ends of my development spectrum: one for breadth and reasoning, the other for speed and flow.
Where ChatGPT Fits
ChatGPT is my thinking partner.
I use it to:
- Map out data models, flows, and patterns.
- Ask “why” questions that don’t fit neatly into code.
- Paste snippets and get explanations.
- Draft larger rewrites or transformations before pasting back into my repo.
It’s best when I need clarity or a second set of eyes — less about auto-completing and more about making sense of the bigger picture.
Where Copilot Fits
Copilot is my flow assistant.
It shines in:
- Filling out boilerplate quickly.
- Suggesting the next line or block when I’m already in the rhythm.
- Handling syntax and minor variations without me thinking too much.
The key: Copilot doesn’t slow me down. It works inline, so I keep my mental focus inside the editor.
How They Work Together
The way I see it:
- ChatGPT is where I explore a problem in natural language, with room to test ideas.
- Copilot is where I execute once I know the direction, filling in details while I code.
A typical loop looks like this:
- I ask ChatGPT to help me sketch out an architecture or a tricky function.
- I copy the result into VS Code.
- Copilot then starts predicting the next pieces of that function or the surrounding glue code.
- If something feels off, I bounce back to ChatGPT to reason about the correction.
It’s like having a strategist and a typist working together.
What Works About This Combo
- Separation of roles: ChatGPT for depth, Copilot for speed.
- Reduced friction: Copilot keeps me from breaking flow for trivial things.
- Iterative thinking: I can push half-baked ideas to ChatGPT, then refine them in code.
- Confidence boost: I don’t get stuck staring at a blank file — one or the other always gives me a nudge forward.
What Could Be Improved
- Context handoff: Right now, I manually copy/paste between the app and VS Code. There’s no shared memory.
- Overlaps: Sometimes Copilot tries to solve problems that really need a ChatGPT-style deep dive, leading to shallow guesses.
- Control: I’d like knobs — when to bias Copilot toward explaining vs completing.
- Syncing: A smoother bridge (say, GitHub Copilot Chat or a persistent ChatGPT side panel) would reduce context-switching fatigue.
Closing Thought
This dual-tool workflow works because I respect their differences.
I don’t expect Copilot to architect my system, and I don’t expect ChatGPT to keep up with every keystroke.
When paired well, they complement each other — one thinking wide, the other typing fast.
The open question is whether the tools themselves will eventually converge, or if the best future still involves keeping them separate and specialized.