JetBrains Copilot

The JetBrains Copilot agent is GitHub Copilot's agentic mode inside JetBrains IDEs. It runs context-mode with the same JSON lifecycle hooks and host-side tool naming as the VS Code Copilot agent. The hooks route data-heavy tool output into the sandbox and keep about 98% of raw payload bytes out of your window — the model writes a program that processes the data and prints only the answer.

• Hooks wired: PreToolUse, PostToolUse, PreCompact, SessionStart
• Dispatch command: context-mode hook jetbrains-copilot <event> with a lowercase event name
• Session continuity: the four hooks below cover capture, snapshot, and restore

Install

The Copilot agent has no plugin marketplace, so install the package globally first, then configure the server and hooks.

node --version

npm install -g context-mode

{
  "servers": {
    "context-mode": {
      "command": "context-mode"
    }
  }
}

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "context-mode hook jetbrains-copilot pretooluse" }
    ],
    "PostToolUse": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "context-mode hook jetbrains-copilot posttooluse" }
    ],
    "PreCompact": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "context-mode hook jetbrains-copilot precompact" }
    ],
    "SessionStart": [
      { "type": "command", "command": "context-mode hook jetbrains-copilot sessionstart" }
    ]
  }
}

cp node_modules/context-mode/configs/jetbrains-copilot/copilot-instructions.md .github/copilot-instructions.md

Tool names

context-mode tools are surfaced under the IDE's own naming scheme. JetBrains Copilot prefixes MCP tools with f1e_ — the same prefix the VS Code Copilot agent uses — so the ctx_* tools appear as:

• f1e_ctx_execute
• f1e_ctx_search
• f1e_ctx_batch_execute
• …and so on

They are the same tools documented elsewhere; only the host-side display name differs.

Detection

context-mode self-identifies as JetBrains Copilot from the IDE environment. The session ID arrives as sessionId (camelCase).

IDEA_HOME and JETBRAINS_CLIENT_ID are no longer used for host detection, but they still contribute to session-ID derivation when sessionId is absent:

Verify your savings

Confirm context-mode is actually saving you tokens, not just that the tools respond.

context-mode doctor

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