GitHub Copilot assists with refactoring by acting as an AI pair programmer. Specifically, through features like Copilot Chat, a developer can select a block of code and ask Copilot to refactor it for specific goals, such as improving readability, simplifying logic, or enhancing performance. Copilot analyzes the context and provides a modified code suggestion. The developer then reviews this suggestion and decides whether to accept it. This process facilitates iterative code quality improvements without automating the entire refactoring process, keeping the developer in control.

A. GitHub Copilot suggests corrections for syntax errors but does not fix them automatically; it requires user action to accept the suggestion.

B. Copilot does not "automatically rewrite" code. It generates suggestions based on user prompts or context, which the developer must explicitly approve and integrate.

D. Managing project files, such as deleting them, is a file system or IDE-level task and is outside the scope of GitHub Copilot's code assistance functionality.

1. Official Vendor Documentation (GitHub Docs): In the "Using GitHub Copilot Chat in your IDE" documentation, it explicitly lists refactoring as a key capability. It states, "You can ask Copilot Chat to help you by... refactoring a selected block of code." This directly supports the idea that Copilot suggests refactoring improvements.

Source: GitHub Docs, "Using GitHub Copilot Chat in your IDE," Section: "Asking questions about your code."

2. Official Vendor Documentation (GitHub Docs): The documentation on inline chat features, such as the /fix slash command, demonstrates how Copilot can be prompted to propose a fix for problems in selected code, which is a form of targeted refactoring. This reinforces that Copilot acts on user command to suggest improvements.

Source: GitHub Docs, "Using GitHub Copilot Chat in your IDE," Section: "Using slash commands."

3. Peer-Reviewed Academic Publication: A study on the use of AI code assistants found that developers use them for various tasks, including refactoring. The study notes that users prompt the tool to "refactor the code" or "make the code more readable," confirming that Copilot serves as a suggestion tool for improving code quality.

Source: Yetistiren, B., et al. (2023). How developers use and perceive gpt-based code assistants: A case study on github copilot. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice (ICSE-SEIP), p. 366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEIP58684.2023.00039