GitHub Copilot Access and IDE Configuration (VA GHEC-US)

This guide captures the setup flow that has worked for VA users on GHEC-US (va.ghe.com) as of May 2026.

In order to complete this setup, you must already have your VA user credentials and be able to access VA internal resources.

Step 1: Request va.ghe.com Access

New users must follow the below steps to sign-up and enable access:

  1. Go to https://myapps.microsoft.com/ and login with your VA user account.

  2. Select Add Apps at the top of the page and select Request new Apps in the dropdown.

  3. Search for GitHub and select Add on the GitHub Enterprise Managed User (OIDC) app. For the justification, provide “access required for source control”. Once submitted, the request will be automatically approved.

    A missing or lengthy justification will result in an error and is not manually reviewed.

  4. Wait for ~40 minutes for your GitHub account to be provided by Entra ID.

  5. Browse directly to https://va.ghe.com to access.

The request is typically auto-approved, but provisioning runs on roughly a 40-minute cycle. Allow up to one hour.

Step 2: Request GitHub Copilot Access

After you can access va.ghe.com, submit the onboarding issue:

This request typically auto-closes with access granted shortly after submission.

Step 3: Configure Your IDE

Intellij

ngss-dev-setup.sh intellij (from the setup script) installs the plugin and sets the host to va.ghe.com, so you can skip to signing in.

  1. In IntelliJ, go to Settings → Plugins and install GitHub Copilot.

  2. Go to Tools → GitHub Copilot → General.

  3. Set the authentication provider/host to va.ghe.com (not default github.com).

  4. Sign in using device code flow at va.ghe.com/login/device.

If the auth provider is set to github.com instead of va.ghe.com, you can be limited to standard model access.

VS Code

  1. Install the GitHub Copilot extension (and optionally GitHub Copilot Chat).

  2. Start sign-in from the Accounts menu or Command Palette (GitHub Copilot: Sign In).

  3. When prompted for host/provider, choose GitHub Enterprise and use va.ghe.com.

  4. Complete sign-in with the device flow at va.ghe.com/login/device.

If VS Code signs you into personal github.com by default, sign out and repeat sign-in using the enterprise host va.ghe.com.

Model Tier and Propagation Notes

You may only see standard 1x models at first. If that happens:

  • Re-check that your IDE auth provider/host is va.ghe.com.

  • Confirm you are not authenticated only against default github.com.

  • Allow up to 24 hours for premium model access to fully propagate.

Premium models currently include Claude Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, and GPT-5.2 and are updated on a rolling basis.