Using GitHub Copilot Coding Agent

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 .github directory
• If the copilot-instructions.md file does not exist in the upper right corner click the Add file button
  
• Click the copilot-instructions.md file 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.yml and 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.