Connect GitHub Copilot

maximal runs your AI coding tools on the models in your GitHub Copilot plan. Before your tools can use those models, you sign maximal in to GitHub once. This page walks you through it.

You’ll need an active GitHub Copilot subscription — either a personal plan or one from GitHub Enterprise. Because maximal works through your own Copilot license, there are no extra API keys and no second bill.

New here? Install maximal first, then come back.

What “connecting” means

When you sign in, maximal links to your GitHub account and uses your Copilot plan to serve your tools. Your tools point at a local address maximal provides. Behind the scenes, Copilot’s models answer their requests.

Until you sign in, maximal still runs — but it turns away anything that needs Copilot. Signing in is what turns it on.

Sign in

Open maximal and go to the Account section. The simplest path works on any machine:

1. Choose Sign in with GitHub.
2. maximal copies a short code to your clipboard and opens github.com/login/device in your browser.
3. Paste the code, then approve the request for maximal.
4. maximal detects the approval on its own and switches to connected.

Already signed in with GitHub elsewhere?

If you already use the gh GitHub tool on this machine, maximal can reuse that account — no code to copy. In Account, choose the option to use your existing gh login, pick the account you want, and maximal connects.

Confirm you’re connected

Back in Account, you should see a connected status and your Copilot plan. That’s it — your tools can now use Copilot’s models.

Next, connect your first tool (like Claude Code), or grab your local address and key from the Endpoint section.

Use more than one account

maximal keeps a registry of accounts, so you can keep work and personal setups side by side.

• Add an account — sign in again with a different GitHub account.
• Switch accounts — pick another account and maximal restarts on it. Any tool already pointed at maximal picks up the change on its next request.
• Sign out — forgets the currently active account.
• Remove an account — drops one specific saved account.

Signing out or removing an account only touches maximal’s own saved token. It never affects your gh login or your GitHub session in the browser.

If something’s not right

• “Requires a Copilot subscription.” maximal is running, but your account doesn’t have an active Copilot plan. Add Copilot to your GitHub account, then sign in again.
• maximal keeps turning requests away. Open Account and confirm the status shows connected. If it doesn’t, sign in again.
• A plan, billing, or rate-limit message from Copilot. maximal surfaces these in Account. Each message includes a link to fix it on GitHub’s side.
• Approved the device code but nothing happened. Give it a moment — maximal detects approval on its own. If it’s stuck, cancel and start the sign-in again.

What’s next

• Connect your tools — wire up Claude Code, Codex, opencode, and more.
• Endpoint — find your local address, keys, and copy-paste helpers.
• Install maximal — if you haven’t set it up yet.

For developers

Sign in from the terminal. If you installed the maximal command-line tool and prefer to stay in the terminal, run:

maximal auth

Follow the prompts to complete the GitHub sign-in.

GitHub Enterprise. Using Copilot through GitHub Enterprise? Set your enterprise URL so maximal signs in against your organization instead of public GitHub. Set the COPILOT_API_ENTERPRISE_URL environment variable before you sign in, then follow the sign-in steps above as usual. We tested maximal end-to-end against an enterprise deployment.