copilot-api start — start the proxy server - Copilot API

The start command launches the Copilot API proxy server. It listens for incoming OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible requests, translates them into GitHub Copilot API calls, and streams responses back to your client. If you have not authenticated yet, start handles the GitHub OAuth device flow automatically before the server starts.

Usage

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start [options]

Options

Start command options

Option	Alias	Default	Description
`--port`	`-p`	`4141`	Port the proxy server listens on.
`--verbose`	`-v`	`false`	Enable verbose logging to the console.
`--account-type`	`-a`	`individual`	GitHub Copilot plan: `individual`, `business`, or `enterprise`.
`--manual`		`false`	Pause each request for manual approval in the terminal before forwarding.
`--rate-limit`	`-r`	none	Minimum seconds between requests. Requests that arrive before the cooldown expires are rejected.
`--wait`	`-w`	`false`	When combined with `--rate-limit`, hold requests in a queue until the cooldown expires instead of returning an error.
`--github-token`	`-g`	none	Provide a GitHub token directly instead of running the interactive OAuth flow. The token must be generated via `auth add`.
`--claude-code`	`-c`	`false`	After the server starts, display an interactive prompt to select models and generate a Claude Code launch command, which is copied to your clipboard.
`--show-token`		`false`	Print the GitHub and Copilot tokens to the console whenever they are fetched or refreshed.
`--proxy-env`		`false`	Initialize HTTP/HTTPS proxy settings from the `HTTP_PROXY` and `HTTPS_PROXY` environment variables.

Global options

Pass global options before the subcommand using the --key=value form.

Option	Default	Description
`--api-home`	none	Path to the data directory where tokens and config are stored. Sets `COPILOT_API_HOME`.
`--oauth-app`	none	OAuth app identifier. Use `opencode` to authenticate as the opencode app. Sets `COPILOT_API_OAUTH_APP`.
`--enterprise-url`	none	GitHub Enterprise hostname (for example `company.ghe.com`). Sets `COPILOT_API_ENTERPRISE_URL`.

Global options must use --key=value syntax when placed before the subcommand. For example: npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest --oauth-app=opencode start.

Examples

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start --port 8080

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start --account-type business

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start --rate-limit 30 --wait

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest start --claude-code

npx @nick3/copilot-api@latest --oauth-app=opencode start

If you use OpenCode, start with --oauth-app=opencode. This uses OpenCode’s OAuth credentials rather than the default device flow, which is identical to OpenCode’s built-in Copilot provider and carries no additional Terms of Service risk.