GitHub unveils coding agent for GitHub Copilot

GitHub has introduced a new coding agent for its GitHub Copilot AI-powered programming assistant. Embedded into GitHub, the agent launches its own development environment with GitHub Actions to implement a task or issue.

Introduced May 19, the GitHub Copilot coding agent runs in the background with GitHub Actions and submits its work as a pull request, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke wrote in a blog post. The agent starts work when a developer assigns a GitHub issue to GitHub Copilot or prompts it in Visual Studio Code. It pushes its changes as commits to a draft pull request, with developers able to track each step through agent session logs. For security, existing policies such as branch protections still apply, and the agent’s pull requests require human approval before any CI/CD workflows are run, according to Dohmke.

“Using state-of-the-art models, the agent excels at low-to-medium complexity tasks in well-tested code bases, from adding features and fixing bugs to extending tests, refactoring code, and improving documentation,” Dohmke wrote. To get started with the new coding agent, developers can assign one or more GitHub issues on github.com, in GitHub Mobile, or via the GitHub CLI.

The GitHub Copilot coding agent is available to Copilot Enterprise and Copilot Pro+ customers. Users must enable the agent in the repositories where the agent is to be used. For Copilot Enterprise users, an administrator must turn on the policy. Additionally, Dohmke noted, GitHub Copilot agent mode now can be activated in Xcode, Eclipse, JetBrains, and Visual Studio IDEs via a public preview.