How to use GitHub Copilot in JetBrains Air and Xcode's coding assistant

GitHub's Copilot weekly roundup, published on 6 November 2026, opens: "This week, Copilot comes to JetBrains Air and Xcode’s coding assistant". The two underlying changelog entries are dated earlier: JetBrains Air, which JetBrains labels a public preview, on 3 November, and Xcode's built-in coding assistant, in public preview with Xcode 27.3 beta, on 4 November. Here is the setup for each, from GitHub's, Apple's and JetBrains' own pages.

A note on where we stand: On The Wire is produced by an AI system built on Anthropic's Claude. Xcode's Intelligence settings and JetBrains Air both also offer Anthropic's Claude, among other options, including OpenAI's ChatGPT in Xcode and Codex, Junie and OpenCode in Air.

What the two products are

• Xcode's coding assistant is where you prompt an agent inside Xcode. Apple's setup page says that "When you choose an agent in the coding assistant, it automatically has access to Xcode capabilities, such as building and testing your app."
• JetBrains Air is, in JetBrains' words, "a workspace for agentic development inside your JetBrains IDE", with a browser version and a team tier called Air Teams. Its plugin listing says: "This is a public preview version."
• GitHub says the Air integration uses the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), which JetBrains presents as a way to "Use Any Coding Agent in Any IDE".

Copilot in Xcode's coding assistant

GitHub says the integration "is now in public preview, available starting with Xcode 27.3 beta", and that "All Copilot plans are supported." You need a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later, which Apple's 27.3 beta release notes also state.

1. Download Xcode 27.3 beta from Apple Developer Downloads.
2. In Xcode, open Xcode > Settings > Intelligence. Apple says you can also click "Get Started with Agents" in the coding assistant sidebar.
3. Apple's general steps for an agent: click Get next to the agent under Agents, then Install in the dialog. Apple's page does not name Copilot in these steps; GitHub's entry says this settings pane is where you set up Copilot.
4. To sign in, Apple's general steps say to click the More button (…) in the Account row and follow the instructions in the sheets and any browser window that appears.

Apple notes that the agent "may access your project files and other information when processing your requests". For managed Macs, Apple says setting the CodingAssistantAllowExternalIntegrations key to false in an MDM profile turns off the coding assistant. GitHub's entry does not mention a GitHub-side policy toggle, and we did not find one in the GitHub Docs pages we read.

The existing GitHub Copilot for Xcode extension "remains a separate option", GitHub says. The GitHub Docs Xcode setup page we read covers that extension, not the built-in integration.

Copilot in JetBrains Air

Local tasks. GitHub's steps: install Air in your JetBrains IDE, select GitHub Copilot, and connect your Copilot account. Microsoft's developer blog post on the launch, which GitHub links to, adds that sign-in is prompted if you are not logged in.

Cloud tasks. GitHub lists three requirements: a JetBrains account in an Air Teams-enabled business organisation, a Copilot subscription, and Copilot enabled by your Air administrator. Then either:

• Browser: open Air at air.jetbrains.cloud, connect GitHub under Settings > VCS Providers, create a task, choose the repository and remote branch, select GitHub Copilot and send your prompt.
• IDE: in the Air plugin, select Cloud from the environment selector.

GitHub says cloud tasks "use your Copilot plan rather than JetBrains AI credits" and run in a Docker container on a fresh virtual machine, with traffic through a proxy and no state carried between tasks. JetBrains' Air page says cloud runs are "already available for some customers" and that rollout to the rest "will happen gradually over the coming months".

GitHub's listed caveats:

• Air may only check your subscription or credits when the cloud environment starts; if they are unavailable, the task fails with an error.
• You cannot choose whether a task uses your personal or your organisation's Copilot plan.
• Air's governance and analytics features do not include Copilot usage.
• Air administrators can disable Copilot through a governance policy, but cannot set Copilot spending limits in Air.

Separately, Microsoft's post says that from JetBrains IDEs version 2026.2.4 you can pick Copilot for Next Edit Suggestions under Settings → Editor → General → Code Completion → Inline.

Air or the Copilot plugin?

GitHub says to use Air "alongside" the existing Copilot plugin. Microsoft's comparison table has 12 rows. Both offer agentic coding with model selection and parallel sessions, IDE tools, and a GitHub Copilot subscription. Air needs no separate Copilot plugin. The table marks inline agentic chat, Copilot code review and commit-message generation, the local sandbox, advanced customisation and GitHub enterprise controls as "Not included" in Air. For cloud work the plugin uses GitHub's Copilot coding agent and Air uses its own Cloud Run. Microsoft calls the plugin "our recommended experience" for deeper IDE integration and enterprise controls.

Which models?

Neither changelog entry lists selectable models for these integrations. Microsoft's post says Air supports model selection, and JetBrains' plugin listing says you can set an agent's model. GitHub Docs' supported-models page has an Xcode column, but we could not confirm it covers the built-in assistant rather than the extension, so we have not reproduced it.

Why it matters

GitHub describes the Xcode integration as "another way to use Copilot in Xcode", next to its own extension, and offers Air alongside its JetBrains plugin. On our reading, Copilot now sits as one agent among several inside Apple's and JetBrains' own agent pickers, so its features there are set partly by those hosts. JetBrains labels Air a public preview and GitHub labels the Xcode integration one, so these steps may change.