Copilot Coding Agent can work entirely online without you knowing anything about software development. To use it
- Open the repository in GitHub
- Create an Issue
- Write the instructions in the descriptions field
- Assign it to Copilot
The agent will create a new branch and based on your description it will make code modifications.
- To see the progress click the View session button
Once the agent completed the task, it will request a review
- On the top of the screen you will see the message:
Copilot requested your review on this pull request.
Click the Add your review button
- To enter line specific comments or instructions, hover above the plus sign and select the blue plus sign to open the Write panel.
- You can type any message into the review field to share your thoughts with other humans, Copilot will ignore those. To give additional instructions to Copilot, start the message with @copilot
- To start the review, click the Start a review button
- To finish the review click the Finish your review button
- You can write additional instructions if necessary and click the Submit review button
- While the agent is working, you can give additional instructions in the bottom chat window
- To go back from the session to the pull request, click the View pull request button at the top of the page
- At the top of the screen click the Add your review button
- Click the Review changes button
- If you are satisfied with the result scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Merge pull request button
- Click the Confirm merge button
- Click the Delete branch button
Preparing the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent environment
To make sure the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent understands your application you give instructions with
- Project overview, including it’s purpose, goals, and any relevant background information.
- Program architecture, standards and conventions that should be followed,
- Useful commands or scripts for common tasks
To save the instructions
Create a new branch
- On the code tab click the branches icon
- In the upper right corner click the New branch button
- Name the branch
prepare-environment
- Go back to the Code tab and click the down arrow on the current branch field and select the new branch
- Navigate to the
.githubdirectory - If the
copilot-instructions.mdfile does not exist in the upper right corner click the Add file button
- Click the
copilot-instructions.mdfile to open it
- In the upper right corner of the edit window click the Edit button
- You can add links to refer to other documents
- And other instructions
- When finished click the Commit changes button in the upper right corner
- Click the Commit changes button on the new panel
- The copilot-instructions-ext.md file contains more recommendations with much more details.
Prepare the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent environment
Specify the required tools in the copilot-setup-steps.yml file
- Stay in the prepare-environment branch
- Navigate to the
.github/workflows/directory - In the upper right corner click the Add file button
- Select Create new file
- The following example pre-installs Python and MongoDB in the Copilot environment
name: "Copilot Setup Steps"
on: workflow_dispatch
jobs:
# This is the required job name. If different, Copilot will ignore it.
copilot-setup-steps:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
# Starts a MongoDB service for Copilot to use during its session.
services:
mongo:
image: mongo:7
ports:
- 27017:27017
# Grant Copilot early access to read the repository content.
permissions:
contents: read
steps:
- name: Checkout code
uses: actions/checkout@v5
- name: Set up Python
uses: actions/setup-python@v6
with:
python-version: "3.13"
cache: "pip"
- name: Install Python dependencies
run: |
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r src/requirements.txt- Enter the file name
copilot-setup-steps.ymland click the Commit changes button
- On the next window click the Commit changes button again
- On the Pull requests tab click the Compare & pull request button
- Click the Create pull request button
- Wait, and let the agent check the changes before you stat the merge
- Click the Merge pull request button
- Click the Confirm merge button
- Click the Delete branch button
Manage multiple tasks with the Agents Panel
- To open the Agents Panel, in the upper right corner of the page click the Open agents panel button
- Make sure the current repository is selected
- When you press enter the task is submitted. The window stays open to monitor the progress and to enter for more instructions.
- Click the task to see the session logs
To open the Agents panel in full screen mode navigate to https://github.com/copilot/agents
If you assign multiple parallel tasks to the agent, make sure the code changes don’t overlap, otherwise merge conflicts will appear.
