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title: "Copilot App" description: "GitHub-native desktop app for agentic development — sessions from issues, Agent Merge, and remote steering" section: "Copilot" readTime: "6 min" badge: "NEW"

GitHub Copilot App

The GitHub Copilot app is a standalone desktop experience built around GitHub-native agentic development. Start from the work already in GitHub, keep tasks isolated in their own sessions, steer as you go, and land changes through the normal PR review process.

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Start from GitHub Context

Your work already lives in GitHub. Sessions can start from:

• Issues — the agent reads the issue description, repo state, and linked PRs
• Pull requests — start a session from an open PR to address review comments
• Previous sessions — resume where you left off
• Your inbox — find issues and PRs that need attention across connected repos

When you start from a GitHub artifact, the relevant context comes with it: issue details, repository state, review comments, CI check results.

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Focused Sessions

Each session has its own isolated space: branch, files, conversation, and task state.

Key behaviors:

• Pause and resume — leave a session mid-task and come back exactly where you left off
• Work across projects — keep separate tasks isolated, even across multiple repositories
• Multiple tasks in motion — sessions don't interfere with each other
• Automate repeatable work — turn skills and prompts into workflows for dependency updates, release notes, issue triage, or routine PRs

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Steer, Validate, and Ship

The app keeps you in control throughout:

Review the plan and diff

Before the agent executes, review the proposed plan. After execution, see exactly what changed as a diff. Leave feedback and guide the next iteration.

Validate in the app

• Run commands in the integrated terminal
• Open previews of web apps
• Test directly from within the session

Open the pull request

Move from session to PR with the same review, checks, and merge requirements your team already uses. The PR is linked to the session, so reviewers can see what the agent did and why.

Agent Merge

Let the agent follow through after the PR is open:

1. Agent monitors review comments
2. Addresses feedback automatically
3. Fixes failing CI checks
4. Merges once your conditions are met (required approvals, checks passing)

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Remote Steering

Start a session on your desktop, check progress and steer from GitHub.com or the mobile app. The session state is fully synced — nothing is lost when you switch devices.

This enables workflows like:

• Start a large refactor before leaving the office, monitor it on your phone
• Kick off a task from mobile, refine it at your desk
• Hand off a session to a teammate via GitHub

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Skills and Prompt Workflows

The Copilot app supports skills and prompt files. Turn any repeatable task into an automated workflow:

• Dependency update PRs — weekly automated updates with changelog summaries
• Release notes — generate from merged PRs since last tag
• Issue triage — label, assign, and add context to new issues automatically
• Code cleanup PRs — lint fixes, dead code removal on a schedule

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Getting Started

1. Copilot Pro/Pro+: Sign up for early access
2. Copilot Business/Enterprise: Access rolls out through the week once your org admin enables previews + Copilot CLI in policy settings
3. Install the app and connect your GitHub account
4. Start your first session from any open issue

See the GitHub Copilot app documentation for full setup instructions.

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Copilot App vs VS Code Extension

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Related

• Cloud Agent — The underlying cloud agent powering the app
• Agents — All Copilot agent types
• Copilot Memory — Preferences that persist across sessions