Guide: Running GitHub Copilot with Local LLM on Windows via Lemonade Server

A developer has published a walkthrough for configuring GitHub Copilot to use a local large language model (LLM) on a Windows machine, specifically a Framework Desktop. The guide was created because the author couldn't find existing simple instructions for this setup.

The core method involves using Lemonade Server, a tool that acts as a local proxy server. It intercepts requests from the GitHub Copilot extension in your code editor (like VS Code) and redirects them to a locally running LLM instead of sending them to GitHub's cloud servers. This allows for private, offline code completion without relying on external APIs.

This setup is relevant for developers who want the autocomplete functionality of GitHub Copilot but require privacy, have data security concerns, want to avoid API costs, or prefer to use a specific open-source model they've fine-tuned themselves. The local LLM would need to be installed and running separately, for example using tools like Ollama, LM Studio, or text-generation-webui.

The original Reddit post links to the full, detailed guide on the author's personal website.