GitHub Copilot on GitHub.com

  • 8 minutes

GitHub Copilot extends beyond your local development environment to provide AI assistance directly on GitHub.com. When working with repositories, issues, pull requests, and discussions on the GitHub web interface, you can leverage Copilot's capabilities to streamline your workflow and enhance collaboration.

In this unit, we'll cover:

  • How to access GitHub Copilot on GitHub.com
  • GitHub Copilot agent tasks on GitHub.com
  • Repository exploration and documentation
  • Pull request assistance
  • Issue management
  • Code review and collaboration
  • GitHub Copilot error explanation in GitHub Actions

Accessing Copilot on GitHub.com

Copilot is integrated throughout the GitHub web interface, appearing as a chat button or inline suggestions in various contexts. You can access Copilot features in several areas:

  • Repository pages - Get explanations of code, documentation, and project structure
  • Issues and pull requests - Generate summaries, suggest solutions, and draft responses
  • Discussions - Help formulate responses and provide technical insights
  • Code review - Analyze changes and suggest improvements

GitHub Copilot agent tasks on GitHub.com

When using Copilot on GitHub.com, you can perform various agent-driven tasks:

Screenshot showing various GitHub Copilot agent tasks available on GitHub.com including repository exploration, pull request assistance, and issue management.

These tasks can run in the background for you while you focus on other work.

Repository exploration and documentation

  • Code explanation: Ask Copilot to explain complex code sections, functions, or entire files
  • Project overview: Get AI-generated summaries of repository purpose, architecture, and key components
  • Documentation generation: Create or improve README files, API documentation, and code comments

Example: "Explain the main functionality of this repository and its key components"

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot providing code explanation and repository overview on a GitHub repository page.

Pull request assistance

GitHub Copilot on GitHub.com significantly accelerates your pull request workflow by automating many time-consuming review and documentation tasks:

  • PR summaries: Generate comprehensive summaries of changes made in a pull request, helping reviewers quickly understand the scope and impact of modifications
  • Review suggestions: Get recommendations for code improvements and potential issues before formal review, reducing review cycles
  • Merge conflict resolution: Receive guidance on resolving conflicts between branches, streamlining the merge process
  • Documentation updates: Automatically suggest updates to README files, changelogs, and other documentation based on code changes

These features help maintain development velocity by reducing the manual effort required to prepare and review pull requests, allowing teams to focus on code quality rather than administrative tasks.

Note

PR summary generation and advanced pull request assistance features consume Premium Request Units (PRUs). Typically, generating a PR summary uses 1-2 PRUs depending on the complexity and size of the changes. Monitor your usage to stay within monthly allowances. For current details on PRU consumption and limits, refer to the Requests in GitHub Copilot documentation.

Example: "Summarize the changes in this pull request and highlight any potential concerns"

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot PR Summary Button.

The results show how Copilot can quickly generate comprehensive PR summaries that would typically take several minutes to write manually:

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot generating a pull request summary and providing review suggestions on a GitHub pull request page.

Issue management

  • Issue analysis: Break down complex problems into actionable tasks
  • Solution brainstorming: Generate potential approaches to resolve reported issues
  • Reproduction steps: Help create clear steps to reproduce bugs or issues

Example: "Analyze this issue and suggest potential solutions with implementation approaches"

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot analyzing a GitHub issue and providing solution suggestions and implementation approaches.

Code review and collaboration

GitHub Copilot enhances your code review process by providing intelligent insights and suggestions that help maintain high code quality and catch potential issues early:

  • Review comments: Generate thoughtful code review comments with specific suggestions
  • Security analysis: Identify potential security vulnerabilities or best practice violations
  • Performance optimization: Suggest improvements for code efficiency and performance

Note

Code review features consume Premium Request Units (PRUs) as part of Copilot's advanced capabilities. Each code review request typically uses 1-3 PRUs depending on the scope and complexity of the analysis. For details on PRU consumption, monthly allowances, and rate limits, see the Requests in GitHub Copilot documentation.

Example: "Review this code change and provide feedback on security and performance considerations"

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot generating code review comments with security and performance suggestions on a pull request.

GitHub Copilot Explain error in actions

GitHub Copilot can help explain and resolve errors that occur in GitHub Actions workflows. This feature analyzes failed workflow runs and provides insights into what went wrong and how to fix it.

How Copilot explains action errors

  • Error analysis: Copilot examines log files and identifies the root cause of failures
  • Solution suggestions: Provides specific recommendations to resolve workflow issues
  • Best practices: Offers guidance on improving workflow reliability and performance
  • Context awareness: Understands the relationship between different workflow steps and dependencies

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot analyzing a failed GitHub Actions workflow and providing error explanations and solutions.