GitHub Copilot for System-Level Development

Master AI-assisted development for systems programming, testing, and infrastructure automation

About • Learning Objectives • Modules • Labs • Resources

📚 Course 2 of the GitHub Copilot Mastery Pathway ⏱️ Duration: ~60 minutes

📖 About This Course

Overview

Welcome to "GitHub Copilot for System-Level Development"! This course builds on foundational prompting techniques to tackle complex system-level challenges including test-driven development, large-scale refactoring, and infrastructure automation. You'll learn how to leverage GitHub Copilot for generating comprehensive test suites, navigating sprawling codebases, and creating production-ready infrastructure configurations.

This is the second course in the GitHub Copilot Mastery Pathway, designed to advance your skills from effective prompting to professional system-level development workflows.

🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

✅ Implement test-driven development (TDD) workflows with GitHub Copilot
✅ Generate and refine complex test suites with mocking and edge case coverage
✅ Strategically navigate and refactor large, multi-file codebases
✅ Analyze cross-file dependencies in complex projects
✅ Perform system-wide code cleanup and style enforcement
✅ Generate infrastructure as code (IaC) configurations
✅ Create production-ready Dockerfiles with AI assistance
✅ Develop Terraform and Ansible automation scripts
✅ Evaluate and improve test coverage systematically

📚 Course Modules

Module 1: AI-Augmented Test-Driven Development

🧪 Introduction to AI-assisted TDD workflows
📝 Generating complex test suites with edge cases
🎭 Mocking dependencies and external services
🎯 Challenge: TDD for a new feature
✅ Solution: TDD for a new feature walkthrough
📊 Evaluating and improving test coverage

Module 2: Large-Scale Refactoring

🗺️ Strategic use of workspace commands for navigation
🔗 Analyzing cross-file dependencies
🎯 Challenge: System-wide code cleanup
✅ Solution: System-wide code cleanup walkthrough
🎨 Enforcing coding styles and constraints
📋 Generating project-specific guidelines

Module 3: Infrastructure as Code with Copilot

⚙️ Generating IaC configurations
🐳 Creating Dockerfiles with AI
🏗️ Terraform configuration generation
🎓 Course wrap-up and next steps

🧪 Labs

This course includes hands-on labs organized by module to reinforce your learning. Each lab provides practical experience with the concepts covered in the videos.

Module 1 Labs: AI-Augmented Test-Driven Development

Module 2 Labs: Large-Scale Refactoring

Module 3 Labs: Infrastructure as Code with AI

🏆 Bonus Exercises: Advanced Applications

Bonus 1: Shell Script Quality with bashrs - 🔧 Use GitHub Copilot prompts to clean up shell scripts using bashrs quality tools

💻 Working Example

This repository includes a complete working example demonstrating shell script quality improvement:

📂 bashrs Shell Script Cleanup Example - A fully functional demonstration with:

🔴 Messy shell script with 9+ quality issues
✅ Clean version following best practices
📝 Documented GitHub Copilot prompts for each transformation
🧪 Comprehensive test suite for validation
📊 Before/after quality comparison

Run the example:

# Build and test
make example-test

# Just build
make example-build

# See quality improvements
bashrs lint examples/bashrs-cleanup/scripts/messy-deploy.sh
bashrs lint examples/bashrs-cleanup/scripts/clean-deploy.sh

🎯 Practice Repository

This course uses redactr as the primary practice repository - a Rust HTTP microservice for PII redaction.

Repository: https://github.com/alfredodeza/redactr

This repository is ideal for practicing because it:

✅ Real-world system-level Rust project
✅ HTTP microservice architecture
✅ Regular expression-based text processing
✅ Comprehensive test suite structure
✅ Production-ready code organization
✅ Active development with real-world patterns

Clone the repository to follow along:

git clone https://github.com/alfredodeza/redactr.git
cd redactr
cargo test  # Verify setup

Quality Tools Integration

This course leverages professional-grade quality tools:

PMAT (PAIML MCP Agent Toolkit)

Documentation validation and repository health scoring:

# Validate all documentation links
make validate-docs

# Check repository health score
make repo-score

Learn more: PMAT Documentation

bashrs

Makefile and shell script linting/formatting:

# Lint Makefile
make lint

# Lint shell scripts
bashrs lint examples/bashrs-cleanup/scripts/*.sh

Learn more: bashrs Documentation

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

Before starting the labs, ensure you have:

🤖 GitHub Copilot Access: An active GitHub Copilot subscription (individual, business, or enterprise)
💻 IDE Setup: Visual Studio Code or a JetBrains IDE with GitHub Copilot extension installed
📦 Git: Installed and configured on your system
🦀 Rust: For working with the redactr practice repository and quality tools

🚀 Quick Start

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/paiml/ghcp-for-systems-level-development
cd ghcp-for-systems-level-development

Install dependencies:
```
make install
```
Run tests to verify setup:
```
make test
```

Optional: Clone practice repository:

git clone https://github.com/alfredodeza/redactr
cd redactr
cargo test

🎮 Usage

Working with the Course

Start with Module 1 labs in labs/module1/
Open the repository in your IDE with GitHub Copilot enabled
Follow along with video content and complete hands-on exercises
Practice on the redactr repository to reinforce learning
Complete bonus exercises for advanced applications

Running the Example

Build and test the bashrs cleanup example:

# Run all tests
make example-test

# Just build the example
make example-build

# Clean build artifacts
make example-clean

Available Commands

make help           # Show all available commands
make install        # Install all dependencies
make lint           # Run all linting
make test           # Run all tests
make validate       # Validate repository structure
make example-test   # Test the working example
make repo-score     # Check repository health score

📚 Resources

Use the following tools and resources to enhance your experience when working with this course:

🎓 Part of the GitHub Copilot Mastery Pathway

This course is Course 2 in a 4-course series:

📚 Advanced Prompting with GitHub Copilot - Repository
🔧 GitHub Copilot for System-Level Development (this course) - Repository
🛡️ Responsible AI Development with GitHub Copilot - Repository
🏆 Capstone: Building Production Features with Copilot - Repository

Quality Standards

This repository maintains strict quality standards:

✅ Documentation Validation: All links verified with PMAT
✅ Makefile Quality: Linted with bashrs
✅ Repository Health: Scored with PMAT (target: 90+/110)
✅ CI/CD: Automated quality gates on all commits
✅ Test Coverage: Working examples with validation

Run quality checks:

make validate      # Run all quality gates
make validate-docs # Validate documentation links
make repo-score    # Check repository health
make lint          # Lint Makefiles and markdown

💡 Tips for Success

🧪 Start with TDD: Write tests before implementation - it improves code quality
🗺️ Use Workspace Commands: @workspace helps Copilot understand large codebases
🔄 Iterate on Tests: Generate tests first, then refine with edge cases
📂 Context is Key: Keep relevant files open for better suggestions
🔍 Review Infrastructure: Always review generated IaC configs before deploying
✅ Validate Everything: Use tools like PMAT and bashrs to catch issues early
🎯 Practice Refactoring: Large-scale refactoring skills transfer across languages
📝 Document Your Prompts: Save effective prompts for reuse in similar scenarios
🧪 Experiment: Try different prompting approaches to find what works best

🤝 Contributing

Ways to Contribute

🐛 Report Issues: Found a bug or broken link? Open an issue
💡 Suggest Improvements: Have ideas for new labs or content? Share them!
📝 Fix Documentation: Improve clarity, fix typos, or add examples
✨ Add Examples: Contribute additional working examples or exercises

Development Workflow

All contributions must meet these standards:

✅ Pass all linting checks (make lint)
✅ Pass all tests (make test)
✅ Include documentation for new features
✅ Follow existing code style and patterns
✅ Update CLAUDE.md if repository structure changes

📄 License

For licensing inquiries, contact Pragmatic AI Labs.

Made with ❤️ by Pragmatic AI Labs

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1 Commit
.github		.github
docs/specifications		docs/specifications
examples/bashrs-cleanup		examples/bashrs-cleanup
labs		labs
resources		resources
.gitignore		.gitignore
.markdownlint.json		.markdownlint.json
.pmat-gates.toml		.pmat-gates.toml
.pre-commit-config.yaml		.pre-commit-config.yaml
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
IMPLEMENTATION-SUMMARY.md		IMPLEMENTATION-SUMMARY.md
IMPROVEMENTS-FROM-ADVANCED-PROMPTING.md		IMPROVEMENTS-FROM-ADVANCED-PROMPTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md

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paiml/ghcp-for-systems-level-development

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