Unveiling the Power of CodiumAI's PR-Agent: A Comprehensive Comparison with GitHub Copilot.
Tags: opensource, testing, codium, ai
Published: 2023-12-20 15:00:31

## **The AI Revolution**

AI now looks like a movement and is rapidly influencing our daily ways of working. The wave is increasing productivity in every place and niche it sets foot on. Having good skills and being productive is being boosted by what AI can do.

When looking at software development, a lot has evolved and we can now integrate some of the most basic and advanced features into our software development environments. Life couldn’t get any easier. AI helps software developers write code more efficiently.

Looking at the benefits of AI, I would like to introduce you to my best AI Detective(“Detective”: from the phrase, Being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer.)
Codium AI is a great companion when it comes to coding. It has immense features that improve software quality and production.


## **The Features of Codium AI.**

1. Codium Chat.
2. PR bot.(PR-Agent)
3. The testing suite.
4. Integrity agents.
5. Codium Autocomplete.
6. Alpha Coding - future release.
7. Codium AI API - future release.
8. Review other products here: [CodiumAi Products](https://www.codium.ai/).
The company provides many features and products. The PR-Agent of CodiumAI increases code quality and streamlines the development process.

## **Introduction to Codium AI PR-Agent.**

When looking at the features of Codium AI, focusing on productivity and Pull Requests, we review the best tool as released for Pull Request Assistance.

The tool is CodiumAI PR-Agent. Codium AI PR-Agent helps with analysis, reviews, commit messages, descriptions, and many more when handling pull requests. 
It increases productivity and helps developers write more efficient code without leaving their Git environment, platforms, and IDE environments for software development.
One amazing aspect of CodiumAI PR-Agent is its open-source. It has a developers community that reviews and updates its features as they advance.


## **Why use a PR Agent for a Pull Request?**

1. It helps you generate Pull Request Descriptions - these are commit messages and titles.
2. It helps Generate Pull Request Reviews and gives Some Suggestions - it helps by suggesting changes and refining git diff for maximum performance.
3. It helps generate changelogs and update documents. - It simplifies updating and writing descriptions.
4. It helps enhance security - by suggesting security measures in the code while bug fixing.
5. Helps increase performance - helps the developer create efficient code by suggesting best practices.

> _Codium AI PR-Agent helps in increasing productivity code quality and performance on an overall basis. The tool is quite a saver when mitigating pull request approval processes. This tool hugely benefits developers._



## **Platforms that can be Used with CodiumAI PR-Agent.**


CodiumAI PR-Agent supports over 70 programming languages.
Codium has extensions that can be used with multiple IDEs like VS Code, Jetbrains, Etc.
CodiumAI PR-Agent can be used on many platforms and IDEs. This is because it is open source thus giving access to contributions from a wide range of developers using various tools and programming languages.
Some of the platforms are Github, GitLab, Beanstalk, Bitbucket, Mercurial, etc. 
Review your platform or IDE here: [Integrations](https://www.codium.ai/install/)


## **Features of the CodiumAI PR-Agent.**

1. **/describe** - the command or tool scans the Pull Request Changes and automatically generates the description which includes the type, summary labels, title, and walkthrough.
More features can be viewed here about the tool.[More about /describe](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/docs/DESCRIBE.md).
> Can be invoked manually by commenting `@CodiumAI-Agent /describe`.   
2. **/review** - the tool scans the Pull Request Code changes and automatically generates a Pull Request Review. More features like “/review -i” can be viewed here about the tool [more about review](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/docs/REVIEW.md)
3. **/improve** - the tool scans the Pull Request Changes and automatically generates committable suggestions for improving the PR Code.
More features like “/improve --extended” can be viewed here about the tool [extended /improve](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/docs/IMPROVE.md)
4. **/ask** - this tool or feature allows developers to ask questions about Pull Request code changes. It is triggered by typing “/ask “...put your question here…”.
5. **/similar_issue** - this tool checks the most similar issues of the Pull Requests and matches them to the current issue. It scans for earlier or previous issues.
Here is a more detailed overview of the tool: [More about /Similar_issue](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/docs/SIMILAR_ISSUE.md)
6. **/update_changelog** - this tool automatically updates the CHANGELOG.md file with the Pull Request changes. It automatically detects and makes the changes. The tool can also be configured with various options. Here is a detailed overview. - [How to configure](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/docs/UPDATE_CHANGELOG.md)
7. **/add_docs** - this tool scans the code changes in the Pull Requests and automatically suggests documentation for undocumented changes in the code. It checks code components. It is an additional documentation tool.
8. **/generate_labels** - the tool scans for Pull Request code changes and it automatically suggests labels that match Pull Request changes.
The tool is configured before use. You can configure it via the CLI (command line interface), repository configuration file (pr_agent.toml), and manual handling on the repository page.


> *These features provide feedback to the developer. They review PR, suggest code, answer questions, and describe pull requests. Most of the features can be automatically triggered using GitHub actions. Some tools require configuration for custom benefits and results.*




## **Major achievements when using CodiumAI PR-Agent Features and tools.**

1. Helps write secure code.
2. Helps write efficient and quality code.
3. Increase productivity and consistency.
4. Helps write better code.
5. Save time by avoiding manual work with PRs.
6. It fixes problems and bugs in your code.
7. Helps you get effective feedback.




## **Comparison between Github Copilot for Pull requests and Codium PR Agent.**

What makes Codium the best choice when it comes to Pull Request Assistance in comparison to Tabnine, Replit, GitHub Copilot, and many more... 

**Github Copilot** is a pull request reviewer AI tool. It was developed on GitHub. It has had a ton of limitations hence the introduction and creation of Codium AI's PR-Agent. Let us compare the benefits of using Codium AI PR_Agent over GitHub’s copilot.

1. **Price.**
Github Copilot is not a free AI tool. Subscription fees are required to continue using it. It does not have a free mode. 
An individual developer can use the free mode of Codium AI PR Agent. One can upgrade when working with teams. They also provide a free trial when working with teams which downgrades when not added to a team for use.
Codium AI PR-Agent currently imposes no restrictions on the number of calls/tokens or repositories accessible by their users.

2. **IDE support.**
Github's Copilot version has limited support for IDEs. This limits developers from accessing the AI tool without specified IDEs.
Codium AI PR Agent has more than 10 supported IDE’s. You can review supported extensions and integrations here - [Supported Integrations](https://www.codium.ai/install/)

3. **Functionality.**
In addition to unlimited and multiline commands, CodiumAI PR-Agent supports more than 8 commands. This is quite safe for developers because they can describe the issue and task at hand without being limited. Developers actively chat and search on the go without limitations.
When it comes to chat support, Github Copilot has limited capabilities. It relies on only a single command which limits flexibility.
> They both perform single and multiline code generation.

4. **Platform support.**
Codium AI PR-Agent is open source and built for many version control platforms/systems. This allows developers to easily navigate and comprehensively learn how to use the PR Agent without worrying about the platform of use.
GitHub copilot for pull requests is built only for Git Hub. This limits developers' freedom to use the tool on other platforms. It can only be used on the Git platform.
5. **Supported Languages.**
Github's Copilot only supports a few languages according to the last release.
Codium AI PR-Agent has support for almost all programming languages relevant today. The number of languages supported by Codium's AI PR-Agent is more than 70 programming languages.
> *This is contributed to due to it being open source. Developers can customize it to their specific needs.*

6. **Suggestions and latency.**
Developers who have been using CodiumAI PR-Agent have been applauding the responses given by the PR-agent models. The company relies on public models for training its AI. This has improved the responses and help given by the PR Agent when reviewing Pull requests.
This showcases the latency to be an average of 9/10. This is superb :smile: .

7. **Markers and features**
The Github Co-pilot relies on 4 markers or features to provide Pull Request Assistance. It has 4 markers : copilot: all, summary, walkthrough, and poem.
CodiumAI PR-Agent has more than 4 tools/features. The features list is documented above in the article. Refer to: Features of the CodiumAI PR-Agent.


> *To advance and learn more about the benefits I would urge you to join the Discord community for more benefits and learning. [Join Discord channel](https://discord.com/invite/SgSxuQ65GF)*



## **How to use it and increase your productivity?**

I will use GitHub for the demo on how to increase productivity.
### **_Installation guides:_**
You can find installation guides on several ways to install the Codium AI PR-Agent here: [Install CodiumAI PR-Agent](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/INSTALL.md).



> *Choose the most preferred way according to your Project Needs*

I preferred installing through GitHub Actions so that I could run it via GitHub Actions.[Install and Run Via Github Actions](https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent/blob/main/INSTALL.md#run-as-a-github-action). 
You can also install the Git Plugin From Here :[Git Plugin] (https://www.codium.ai/products/git-plugin/)

![PR-Agent For VS Code](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7b2u72ooine1xy2xajfk.png)

When working with pull requests, you might not have all the time to keep on reviewing all the code. This is when the practicality of CodiumAI PR-Agent as an AI assistant chips in. It will help you write and review given Pull Requests. Some features extend their functionality towards productivity and streamline the development process…

#### _Let us preview some commands in use._

I am working on a team project. There are multiple pull request codes. They have to be reviewed each time.
Let us review each pull request. - 
 ```  /review  ``` 
We do so by commenting on the pull request: _<u> ```  @CodiumAI-Agent /review   ``` </u>_ - This is to review the changes to the pull request code. We see the added files and we can give feedback on the same. Here is an example.

![Github /review Command by PR-Agent](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qayityghrhwiekvw37hz.png)



The request for review follows up with a response to the review requested. A complete analysis of the pull request code review is given. It contains descriptions, summaries, and suggestions for changes to the code.



![Code Analysis by CodiumAI's PR-Agent](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/d3ius296f9owrmaoyze1.png)


**_A lot of information is given back to the developer.
I can review the Code while focusing on the productivity of the tool and there is a lot that this Pull Request Assistant can do. There are a lot of benefits and a lot that can be done and accomplished with this tool._**



## **Conclusion**
 
Having an assistant who is always there to engage with your daily software development jobs is a great win. CodiumAI PR-Agent serves as the best AI Pull Request Assistant for increasing development productivity. There are no limits when it comes to CodiumAI's PR Agent. 
Github Copilot is looking forward to providing more tools in their Beta by requesting people to nominate organizations and enterprises for the Github Copilot Enterprise waitlist form.

> *Leveraging the power of AI Pull Request Assistance brings productivity and streamlines the software development process.*



You can learn more about CodiumAI PR-Agent here: [Learn More]( https://github.com/Codium-ai/pr-agent).
you can also view the website here: [CodiumAI PR-Agent](https://www.codium.ai/products/ide-plugin/)