The Real Reason GitHub Copilot Can't See Your Whole Repo (But Claude Code Can)
Hey there! If you've been using AI coding assistants, you've probably noticed something a little weird. You might be deep in a project, ask GitHub Copilot for help with something in another file, & it just... can't. It's like it has tunnel vision. But then you hear about tools like Claude Code that seem to understand your entire project, remote repo & all. What gives?
Turns out, it's not a bug or a limitation you're imagining. The difference is fundamental to how they're designed. Honestly, it comes down to two COMPLETELY different approaches to helping you code. One is a super-smart autocompleter, & the other is more like a junior developer you can delegate tasks to.
Let's break down why GitHub Copilot is stuck in the file you have open, while Claude Code can poke around your entire remote repository.
GitHub Copilot: The In-the-Moment Assistant
Think of GitHub Copilot as an incredibly knowledgeable partner sitting next to you, but they're only looking at the single page of code you have on your screen. Its whole world is the file (or files) you have open in your IDE at that exact moment.
Here's the thing: Copilot's main job is to provide real-time code completions & suggestions as you type. To do this, it takes snippets of the code you're actively working on, sends them to a server for analysis, & then sends back a suggestion. It's a very focused, in-the-moment interaction.
Its Access is Limited by Design
When you grant Copilot permission to access a private repository, it's not so it can clone the whole thing & study it. That permission is primarily to allow it to look at your code to give you those contextual, in-file suggestions without violating your privacy. GitHub has been pretty clear that the content of your private repos is used for your session only & not to train their public models.
This is a security & privacy feature, really. It prevents your entire proprietary codebase from being ingested every time you want a suggestion. But the trade-off is a lack of deep, project-wide context. Copilot doesn’t know what's in
when you're working in
unless you have both files open & are actively referencing them. It doesn't have a "map" of your repository; it just sees what's right in front of it.
There have been some concerns about Copilot's ability to access code from repos that were once public due to caching, but for your active, private repos, its view is intentionally narrow.
Claude Code: The Agentic Teammate
Now, let's talk about Claude Code. This is where things get pretty cool & fundamentally different. Claude Code operates less like a code-suggester & more like an "agentic development partner." It’s designed to take on whole tasks, from planning & implementation to testing.
The Magic is in the GitHub App Integration
The key difference is that you don't just "turn on" Claude Code in your editor. You actually install the Claude GitHub App into your GitHub account & grant it explicit access to specific repositories. This is a BIG deal.
By doing this, you're essentially onboarding Claude as a team member with read access to the repos you choose. It's not just looking at snippets; it can do things like:
- Sync with your repository: It can pull down & understand the entire file & folder structure of your project.
- Interact via GitHub: You can trigger Claude to perform tasks by mentioning it in a pull request or an issue comment. For example, you could write "@claude, please refactor this component to use our new design system tokens."
- Execute commands: Because it often runs in a terminal or via GitHub Actions, it can run commands, interact with Git, & even run your test suite.
So, when you ask Claude a question about your project, it's not just guessing based on the current file. It has the context of the entire codebase you've given it access to. It can trace function calls across multiple files, understand your project's dependencies, & make changes in several places at once to complete a task. It feels more like you're delegating work to a junior dev who can actually navigate the project.
The Big Picture: Two Different Philosophies
So, why the huge difference? It's all about their core purpose:
- GitHub Copilot is a tool to make you a faster coder. It's an enhancement of the traditional autocomplete, designed to be seamlessly integrated into your IDE & make the immediate task of writing code quicker.
- Claude Code is an agent designed to do coding work for you. It's built to take on higher-level, multi-step tasks that require a broader understanding of the project's architecture.
This is a great example of how different AI tools are being built for different parts of the development workflow. Sometimes you just need a quick assist to finish a line of code—that's Copilot. Other times, you need to automate a tedious refactoring job or get a high-level overview of how a feature is implemented across the entire repo—that's where Claude Code shines.
And hey, for businesses looking to provide that kind of deep, contextual help to their own customers, this is where the technology gets REALLY interesting. Imagine giving your website visitors a support experience that understands your entire knowledge base. That's the kind of power you get with custom AI chatbots. For instance, a tool like Arsturn allows businesses to create AI chatbots trained on their own data. This means they can provide instant, accurate answers & engage with customers 24/7, because the AI has the full context, much like Claude Code has the full context of your repo. It's about moving from simple, one-off answers to a deeper, more helpful conversational experience.
So yeah, the next time Copilot feels a bit clueless about your project's structure, you'll know why. It's not broken; it's just a specialist with a very specific, & very focused, job. For the bigger picture, you might need a different kind of AI teammate altogether.
Hope this was helpful! Let me know what you think.