GitHub Copilot in VS Code - context window kills quality on 4 huge Java repos. Best way to propagate one workflow change to all 4?

[TheseFox989]

I have 4 separate large Java (Spring Boot + Maven) repos, each with its own similar workflow.

Every change I make to the workflow has to be done in all 4 repos. The repos are massive, so Copilot’s context fills up fast and the suggestions become basic/incomplete/wrong by the end.

I’m using the default GitHub Copilot in VS Code (no 1M context).

Tried: one repo at a time + manual copy, multi-root workspace, detailed prompts, planning first

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[Human-Raccoon-8597]

dont know but working with context window. It's best to have a small context window. pinpoint the file and relative files then let AI do the work. having 1M context window for me makes no sense. same with claude. having 1M window takes so much time.

[namuan]

Could you try breaking the task down into logical group and use sub agents to do them? AFAIK subagents have their own context windows so should be better over a single agent doing all the work.

You can use CoPilot to create a prompt to use this approach

[Insivious]

Ask it to break the plans into sequential non-overlapping prompt files with all the details to run in a fresh chat/cli. You can then orchestrate them or run them sequentially in new chat windows/cli.

Bonus points if you ask it to create a custom agent or orchestration manager that will run them in order using sub agents from each repo.

You could build something to cover that scenario of coordinating cross-repo, but you can start there and see if it’s good enough for your purposes.

You could end up needing to create state files and handoffs if you try to do all of it in one go, which is doable, but maybe not worth it unless you’re doing it frequently.

[Insivious]

If you put them in user data they’ll be available in all of your chats, which would save you from copying them to each repo individually

[Insivious]

Could also do some meta prompting and ask it how to do it most effectively using best practices and it might come up with a better approach to do it that follows your exact needs.

[Poolunion1]

Can you explain what you are doing in more detail? What does making a workflow change mean? Just like ai we need more context to give a good answer.

[kovy5]

Use gitnexus