Domain 4 of 6 · Chapter 1 of 2

Manage privacy settings and exclusions

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Included in this chapter:

  • Content exclusion, editor settings and the Copilot terms
  • What content exclusion withholds
  • Who sets exclusion rules, and whom they reach
  • Writing repository rules: paths and patterns
  • Writing organization and enterprise rules
  • How a client learns which rules apply
  • Where exclusion is supported, surface by surface
  • What exclusion cannot guarantee
  • Editor settings: inline suggestions by language
  • Next edit suggestions: a separate switch
  • Which Copilot terms govern your use
  • Ownership of inputs and outputs
  • Model training: managed versus individual plans
  • Defense of third-party claims
  • Limitations of output: security and review
  • Content exclusion, editor settings and Copilot terms scenarios

Content exclusion, editor settings and Copilot terms

AttributeContent exclusionEditor settingsCopilot terms
Question it answersWhich files may Copilot read and use as context?Where does Copilot offer inline suggestions in my editor?Who owns output, may data train models, who defends claims?
Who sets itRepository administrators, organization owners, enterprise ownersEach developer in their own IDEFixed by the agreement for your purchase channel; individual plans add a personal training setting
PlansCopilot Business and Copilot Enterprise onlyEvery plan, for inline suggestions in a supported IDE (on Business or Enterprise, next edit suggestions may also need the Editor preview features policy)Every plan, under different documents
Who it reachesCopilot users in the enterprise working in the repository, users with a Copilot seat from the organization, or every Copilot user in the enterpriseOnly the developer who changed the settingThe customer or user bound by that agreement
Where you configure itRepository, organization or enterprise settings on GitHub, or the REST API's organization endpointsIDE settings, such as VS Code `settings.json` or JetBrains `github-copilot.xml`The agreement is not configured here; individual subscribers can adjust model-training use in personal Copilot settings
What it does not doCover every surface (for example Edit and Agent modes, or Chat in Xcode and Eclipse), symlinks, remote filesystems, or IDE-supplied semantic informationExclude files for other usersClear third-party license obligations or certify output as secure

Decision tree

Administrator rule: make Copilot ignorespecified files for other users too?YesNoCopilot Business orCopilot Enterprise plan?YesNoContent exclusionNot included inindividual plansChange where Copilot offersinline suggestions to you only?YesNoEditor settingsOwnership, training use,or claim defense?YesNoCopilot termsSee page: Applysafeguards and troubleshoot
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Excluded files receive no inline suggestions
  • Excluded content cannot ground completions in other files
  • Excluded content is omitted from supported Chat context
  • Copilot code review omits excluded files
  • An IDE can indirectly expose semantic information from an excluded file
  • Content exclusion requires a managed Copilot plan
  • Repository administrators set repository-scoped exclusions
  • Organization exclusions follow the organization-provided seat
  • Enterprise exclusions cover all Copilot users in the enterprise
  • Maintainers can view but cannot edit repository exclusions
  • Inherited exclusions are visible but read-only
  • Repository rules list paths as separate items
  • A leading slash anchors a path to the repository root
  • A bare filename matches in any repository directory
  • Exclusion globs use case-insensitive fnmatch semantics
  • The star repository key covers Git and non-Git files
  • An organization rule maps a repository reference to paths
  • Repository references normalize common clone protocols
  • Organization and enterprise owners can manage exclusions through REST
  • Edit and agent modes do not support content exclusion
  • IDEs may indirectly expose semantic information from excluded files
  • Symlinks and remote filesystems are outside exclusion support
  • Website and mobile exclusion support remains preview
  • The Copilot app and Copilot CLI honor configured content exclusions
  • Content exclusions do not protect symlinks or repositories on remote filesystems
  • Editor controls can disable completions globally or by language
  • Language-specific completion settings override wildcards
  • Next edit suggestions have separate enablement
  • GitHub does not claim ownership of Copilot inputs or outputs
  • The purchase channel determines the governing Copilot terms
  • Managed customer data is not used for model training by default
  • Output claim defense depends on the customer's agreement
  • Nonownership by GitHub does not clear third-party rights
  • Generated code may introduce security risk
  • Human review remains accountable for Copilot output
  • Individual users can opt out of model training
  • Repository URLs used for exclusion lookup are not logged

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References

  1. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/context/content-exclusion
  2. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-personal-settings/configure-in-ide
  3. https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service
  4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/resources/study-guides/gh-300
  5. https://docs.github.com/en/admin/overview/about-enterprise-accounts
  6. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/ai-powered-suggestions
  7. https://github.com/customer-terms/github-generative-ai-services-terms
  8. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/overview
  9. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans
  10. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/responsible-use/inline-suggestions
  11. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/manage-your-account/manage-policies
  12. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/configure-content-exclusion/exclude-content-from-copilot
  13. https://docs.github.com/en/rest/copilot/copilot-content-exclusion-management
  14. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/github-copilot-app
  15. https://github.blog/changelog/2026-09-02-content-exclusions-generally-available-in-copilot-app-and-cli/
  16. https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-for-additional-products-and-features
  17. https://github.com/features/copilot/plans