Copilot and GitHub Integration

Microsoft was super excited to introduce a new coding agent for GitHub Copilot. As Embedded directly into GitHub, the agent triggers its work when you assign a GitHub issue to Copilot or prompt it in VS Code. The agent starts up a secured and fully customizable development environment (DE) powered by GitHub Actions.

As the agent works, it pushes commits to a draft pull request, and you can track it every step of the way through the agent session logs. Having Copilot with your team doesn’t mean weakening your security posture – existing policies like branch protections still apply in exactly the way you’d expect. Plus, the agent’s pull requests require human approval before any CI/CD workflows are run, creating an extra protection control for the build and deployment environment.

Using state-of-the-art models, the agent excels at low-to-medium complexity tasks in well-tested codebases, from adding features and fixing bugs to extending tests, refactoring code, and improving documentation. You can hand off the time-consuming, but boring tasks to Copilot that will use pull requests, CI/CD, and all of your existing tooling while you focus on the interesting work.

Copilot Agent – Functional View

For running the new coding agent, assign one or more GitHub issues to it. It is as easy as that. You can do this on github.com, in GitHub Mobile, or through the GitHub CLI, just as you would assign the same issue to one of your team members or yourself. You can also ask Copilot to open a pull request from Copilot Chat on GitHub or right in VS Code like this:

> @github Open a pull request to refactor this query generator into its own class

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Once an issue is assigned to it, the agent adds an emoji reaction and starts its work in the background. It boots a virtual machine (VM), clones the repository, configures the environment, and analyzes the codebase with advanced retrieval augmented generation (RAG) powered by GitHub code search. As the agent works, it regularly pushes its changes to a draft pull request as Git commits and updates the pull request’s description. During this all, you can see the agent’s reasoning and validation steps in the session logs, making it easy to trace decisions and spot issues.

With the power of Model Context Protocol (MCP), you can give the coding agent the access to data and capabilities from outside of GitHub. MCP servers can be configured in the repository’s settings. And, of course, all your GitHub data can be pulled in from the official GitHub MCP Server. And here the agent is not limited to just text, it can see images included in GitHub issues you assign to it, so you can share screenshots of a bug or mockups of what your new feature should look like.

Once Copilot is finished, it will tag you for review and you can leave your comments asking for it to make changes. It will pick those comments up automatically and propose code changes. The agent also includes context from related issue and follows any custom REPO instructions, allowing it to understand both the intent behind the task and the coding standards of the project.

The Copilot coding agent is opening up doors for developers to have their own agent-driven team, all working in parallel to amplify their work. We’re now able to assign tasks that would typically detract from deeper, more complex work—allowing developers to focus on high-value coding tasks.

-James Zabinski, DevEx Lead at EY

Its Integrated, Configurable & Secure

All SWE agents need a compute environment to do their job. For agent mode in VS Code, it’s the CPU of your PC or Mac, or a remote development container like GitHub Codespaces.  The coding agent is designed from the ground up to keep your project secure and ensures that its work gets a review before it goes to LIVE. The following policies are applied by default:

• The agent can only push to branches it has created, keeping your default branch and the ones your team created safe and secure
• The developer who asks the agent to open a pull request cannot be the one to approve it – so any “required reviews” rules you have set up in your repository will be honored
• The agent’s internet access is tightly limited to a trusted list of destinations that you can customize
• GitHub Actions workflows won’t run without your approval, giving you the chance to spot-check the agent’s code

Existing repository rulesets and organization policies here are considered as well.

GitHub Copilot coding agent is now in public preview

We can delegate issues to it so we can focus on the creative, complex, and high-impact work that matters most. Its coding agent makes this possible.

Simply assign an issue (or multiple issues) to Copilot just as you would another developer. You can do this from github.com, GitHub Mobile, or the GitHub CLI. Copilot works in the background, using its own secure cloud-based development environment powered by GitHub Actions. Copilot explores the repository, makes changes, and even validates its work with your tests and linter before it pushes.

The coding agent is rolling out to GitHub Mobile users on iOS and Android, as well as GitHub CLI. Availability for both platforms will gradually expand to more users throughout this week.

It excels at low-to-medium complexity tasks in well-tested codebases, from adding features and fixing bugs to extending tests, refactoring, and improving documentation. You can even assign multiple issues to Copilot at the same time.

The coding agent is available now for Copilot Pro+ and Copilot Enterprise subscribers. If you’re on Copilot Enterprise, an administrator will need to enable the new Copilot coding agent policy before you can get access. Using the agent consumes GitHub Actions minutes and Copilot premium requests, starting from entitlements included with your plan.

Why wait, Start today

The new coding agent is available to all Copilot Enterprise and Copilot Pro+ customers. All you need to get started is enable the agent in the repositories where you want to use, and if you are a Copilot Enterprise user, an administrator will need to turn on the policy too. Additionally, you can now activate agent mode in more IDEs, including Xcode, Eclipse, Jetbrains, and Visual Studio.

Beginning June 4, 2025, Copilot coding agent will use one premium request per model request the agent makes.

Whether it’s code completion, next edit suggestions, chat, agent mode, or now coding agent, GitHub Copilot has always had one mission: To keep you in the magical flow state. To do the things you don’t want to do, so you have more time for the things you do. To find the creative side that brought you to this industry in the first place.

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Watch the Video released as Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) detailing on the AI Code Agent