# Chris Wanstrath

> Chris Wanstrath is co-founder of GitHub. GitHub Copilot CLI on Anchor Terminal, with grades, an about and public profiles.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/chris-wanstrath/
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/chris-wanstrath/index.md (~800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/chris-wanstrath/index.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/chris-wanstrath/index.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-27

Co-founder, GitHub.

Chris Wanstrath co-founded GitHub in 2008 and was its chief executive until 2012 and again from 2014 to October 2018, the year Microsoft acquired it. Before GitHub he worked at CNET Networks on GameSpot, and he created the Atom text editor, the Resque job queue and the Mustache templating language.

## What Chris builds

- [GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/github-copilot-cli.md), graded C, 58.3/100, in Agent harnesses. GitHub's coding agent for the terminal, built on the same agent harness as Copilot cloud agent (formerly Copilot coding agent), which works in GitHub Actions and opens pull requests. Co-founder, GitHub, researched 2026-10-27.

## Works with

- [P. J. Hyett](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/p-j-hyett/), Co-founder, GitHub
- [Scott Chacon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/scott-chacon/), Co-founder, GitHub
- [Tom Preston-Werner](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/tom-preston-werner/), Co-founder, GitHub

## Questions

### Who is Chris Wanstrath?

Chris Wanstrath co-founded GitHub in 2008 and was its chief executive until 2012 and again from 2014 to October 2018, the year Microsoft acquired it. Before GitHub he worked at CNET Networks on GameSpot, and he created the Atom text editor, the Resque job queue and the Mustache templating language.

### What does GitHub (Microsoft) make?

Anchor Terminal lists GitHub Copilot CLI from GitHub (Microsoft). GitHub's coding agent for the terminal, built on the same agent harness as Copilot cloud agent (formerly Copilot coding agent), which works in GitHub Actions and opens pull requests.

### How are Chris's tools graded?

GitHub Copilot CLI is graded C, 58.3 out of 100, on Anchor Terminal's benchmark, which scores every listing against the same checklist.

## Sources

- https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/about-copilot-cli
- https://github.blog/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Preston-Werner
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wanstrath
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._J._Hyett

These are the people building the tools we list, named for their public role in the company or project behind a listing, from public pages, with the date it was researched. They don't work for Anchor Terminal (our own team is on the about page, /about/#author). We show public roles, public profiles and what the listing pages show, nothing private. To correct something, send an about or a photo, or have a page removed, write to privacy@anchorterminal.com.

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp