AI

Introducing Pieces Copilot

    Tsavo Knott
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    Today is a monumental day at Pieces for Developers. We’re thrilled to announce significant updates to Pieces Copilot, our intelligent coding assistant that has already transformed the way developers work.

    Pieces OS 6.0.0 brings game-changing features that set the Pieces Copilot apart from the crowd, pushing the boundaries beyond AI code generation. Here are some of the key attributes supporting the workflows of professional developers working on complex projects:

    Context-Aware Intelligence: Pieces Copilot is now more contextual than ever, thanks to Retrieval Augmented Generation. Your interactions within the Pieces Desktop Application and plugins continuously re-ground your personal AI engine, tailoring its responses to your unique requirements. You can also set specific contexts for each conversation, including personal repositories, code snippets, website URLs and videos, for hyper-relevant results based on your unique project.

    Configuring context for the Pieces Copilot

    Air-Gapped and On-Device Functionality: We’ve built Pieces from the ground-up to support local AI capabilities for strict enterprise-grade security and compliance requirements. With dynamic LLM runtime options like Llama 2 for air-gapped work on-prem, or GPT-4 for cloud access with additional parameters, you can generate, transform and understand code based on your needs.

    Entirely local LLM processing.

    Multimodal Interactions: Unlike most conversational AI products, our Copilot isn’t just about text. Now you can kick off your problem-solving journey with Images of code or text, making the code instantly available for question-answering. Stay tuned for even more multimodal features, including video, websites, and file inputs.

    Chatting with Pieces copilot about a screenshot.

    Embedded Throughout Your Workflow: Pieces Copilot is now deeply integrated into your IDE, browser, and collaboration tools. No more context switching—generate, iterate, and curate code wherever you are. Pieces Copilot is contextualized on the code you’re working on, leading to highly accurate, incremental code generation built to augment your natural workflow.

    Using Pieces Copilot in other Pieces plugins.

    Connect with Your Team Instantly: A New Way to Collaborate

    In the fast-paced world of software development, efficient collaboration is the key to success. With the latest updates to Pieces Copilot, we’re introducing a feature that revolutionizes the way developers interact and connect within their organization.

    Understanding the Challenge

    Communication barriers can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and reduced productivity. Finding the right person to assist with a specific coding task, discuss a particular language, or pair program with can be a time-consuming process.

    The Pieces Copilot Solution

    We’ve turned this challenge into an opportunity by embedding code snippets from throughout your organization, enabling your Pieces Copilot to understand the unique skill sets of your teammates and provide Related People suggestions during your conversations. Here’s how that can empower your team:

    1. Make Any Large Team Feel Small: Need help with a specific code snippet or want to pair program with an expert? Just ask Pieces Copilot, and it will instantly return people in your organization who specialize in that programming language or coding concept. The more you send Pieces shareable links with your teammates and add related people to the metadata of your saved snippets, the more accurate your copilot’s results will get.

    2. Related People in Global Search: Our Global Search function is now also equipped with Related People results. Simply query anything related to your project, and we’ll not only show relevant code snippet results from your repo, but we’ll surface people who have related expertise or who worked on a related project.

    3. Seamless Integration with Collaboration Tools: Pieces Copilot is not just about finding the right person; it’s about facilitating seamless communication. Integration with collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams ensures that connecting with colleagues is just a click away. You can even chat with Pieces Copilot simultaneously, right within your Teams chats!

    4. Personalized Connections: Pieces Copilot understands the unique structure and roles within your organization. It tailors its suggestions based on the context of your query, ensuring that you connect with the most suitable teammate for your specific needs.

    5. Enhancing Team Cohesion: By making it easy to connect with colleagues across various departments and teams, Pieces Copilot fosters a more collaborative and cohesive work environment. Large teams will feel smaller, more connected, and more agile, especially in remote and hybrid work environments.

    Why This Matters for Enterprises

    In large organizations, the ability to connect effortlessly with the right people can be a game-changer. It reduces time spent on searching and initiating connections, allowing teams to focus on what really matters: building great software.

    Pieces Copilot’s new connectivity feature is more than a convenience; it’s a strategic tool that empowers development teams to work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively.

    How Does Pieces Copilot Compare to Other Tools?

    While there are other AI code generation tools available, Pieces Copilot offers unique differentiators that focus on professional developers’ needs, especially in larger enterprises. Here are a few notable examples:

    • Understanding and Explaining Code: Developers need to comprehend complex code. Pieces Copilot leverages Retrieval Augmented Generation, providing a deep understanding of the code based on its context in your project–not just generic answers. It’s a tool that not only assists in coding but educates, mentors, and builds bridges between developers, managers, designers, and even clients.

    • Onboarding and Knowledge Sharing: Share coding expertise, development materials, and lessons learned across the organization with shared Pieces drives. Your team’s collective Pieces repositories set context for your copilot not just on code snippets, but also how you actually arrived at a certain solution with Workflow Activity Streams. For new team members, understanding existing code can be a steep learning curve–Pieces Copilot accelerates this process, making it easier for new hires to grasp the existing codebase, and for senior engineers to spend more time on complex tasks while turning over simpler tasks to the copilot.

    • Standardizing Coding Processes: Leverage Pieces Copilot to drive improvement, innovation, and maintain standard coding practices across the team. Stay in sync with your collaborators by sharing boilerplate code you generated with Pieces, and contextualizing your copilot based on Pieces repositories you have access to, documentation sites, and shared projects for streamlined consistency.

    • Air-Gapped Security: Build great software, without worrying about the security of your code. Pieces Copilot offers the ability to operate completely offline and on your device, empowering developers with control, privacy, and security. Continue coding, exploring, and iterating, regardless of your internet connection–and simply connect to the cloud for more intelligent processing at your convenience.

    • Paired with an Intelligent Code Snippet Manager: Save, enrich, search, and share your generated code snippets without context switching – and the more you save, the better the copilot gets! Pieces makes managing large collections of code snippets simple, ensuring that every piece of valuable code is readily available.

    Ready to Experience the New Pieces Copilot?

    We’re confident that the upgraded Pieces Copilot will redefine what’s possible in your daily development tasks. Install the desktop application for free to experience how we’ve made the coding even simpler and more efficient for developers.

    Join our Q&A Session on August 26 at 12pm ET!

    Join our CEO and Co-Founder Tsavo Knott for a 1-hour Q&A session, all about the Pieces Copilot and the state of AI in software development. Whether you’re deep in the world of generative AI or just starting out, this is your opportunity to get answers straight from the experts and see the new features that make Pieces Copilot a 10x tool for developers.

    Plus, if you submit questions ahead of time, you have the chance to win a $100 gift card during the event! Register now for the Q&A session!

    This sponsored article was originally published on the Pieces.app blog. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.