Kick off a task with Copilot agents on GitHub

Decide whether Copilot cloud agent creates a pull request immediately or works on a branch you review and iterate on first.

Who can use this feature?

Copilot cloud agent is available with the GitHub Copilot Pro, GitHub Copilot Pro+, GitHub Copilot Business and GitHub Copilot Enterprise plans. The agent is available in all repositories stored on GitHub, except repositories owned by managed user accounts and where it has been explicitly disabled.
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In this article

You can start a Copilot cloud agent task in several ways. Assigning an issue always creates a pull request. Starting with a prompt works on a branch by default, giving you a chance to review, steer, and iterate before you open a pull request. Seeding a repository creates a draft pull request with scaffolded code.

Assign an issue to Copilot

Assigning an issue always creates a pull request. Copilot works on the task and requests your review when it finishes.

  1. In the right sidebar of the issue, click Assignees.

  2. Click Copilot from the assignees list.

  3. Optionally, add context in the Optional prompt field—for example, coding patterns, files to modify, or testing requirements.

  4. Optionally, change the target repository or base branch using the dropdown menus.

  5. Optionally, you can click to open the agent dropdown menu, if you want to assign an agent or a custom agent with specialized behavior and tools. You can select an existing custom agent from your repository, organization, or enterprise. You can also click Create an agent to create a new agent profile in your selected repository and branch. For more information, see Creating custom agents for Copilot cloud agent.

    Note

    Third-party coding agents are available in the GitHub Copilot Pro+ and Copilot Enterprise plans.

  6. Optionally, if you are a GitHub Copilot Pro or GitHub Copilot Pro+ user, you can use the dropdown menu to select the model that Copilot will use. For more information, see Changing the AI model for GitHub Copilot cloud agent.

Copilot receives the issue title, description, and existing comments at assignment time. It does not see comments added after assignment, so post follow-up information on the pull request instead.

Start a task with a prompt

Cloud agent works on a branch by default. You can review the diff, iterate with follow-up prompts, and create a pull request when you're ready.

  1. Open the agents panel or tab:

    • Open the Agents tab in a repository.
    • Navigate to the agents page: Go to github.com/copilot/agents. You can also get here by opening the agents panel, then clicking View all.
    • Open the agents panel: Click in the navigation bar at the top right of GitHub.

  2. Using the dropdown menu in the prompt field, select the repository you want Copilot to work in.

  3. Type a prompt describing your request. You can also add visual inputs like screenshots or UI mockups by pasting, dragging, or uploading an image. Files supported: image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/webp.

    For example, Create a pull request to implement a user friendly message for common errors.

  4. Optionally, select a base branch for Copilot's pull request. Copilot will create a new branch based on this branch, then push the changes to a pull request targeting that branch.

  5. Optionally, you can click to open the agent dropdown menu, if you want to assign an agent or a custom agent with specialized behavior and tools. You can select an existing custom agent from your repository, organization, or enterprise. You can also click Create an agent to create a new agent profile in your selected repository and branch. For more information, see Creating custom agents for Copilot cloud agent.

    Note

    Third-party coding agents are available in the GitHub Copilot Pro+ and Copilot Enterprise plans.

  6. Optionally, if you are a GitHub Copilot Pro or GitHub Copilot Pro+ user, you can use the dropdown menu to select the model that Copilot will use. For more information, see Changing the AI model for GitHub Copilot cloud agent.

  7. Click or press Enter.

    Copilot will start a new session, which will appear in the list below the prompt box. Copilot will work on the task and push changes to its pull request, then add you as a reviewer when it has finished, triggering a notification.

The same prompt box is available on your dashboard and in Copilot Chat (type /task).

For the full workflow of researching, planning, and iterating before creating a pull request, see Research, plan, and iterate on code changes with Copilot cloud agent.

Seed a new repository

When you create a new repository, you can have Copilot generate starter code.

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, select , then click New repository.

    Screenshot of a GitHub dropdown menu showing options to create new items. The menu item "New repository" is outlined in dark orange.

  2. In the Prompt field, describe what you want Copilot to build — for example, Create a Rust CLI for converting CSV spreadsheets to Markdown.

  3. Click Create repository.

Copilot opens a draft pull request with the scaffolded code.

Further reading