Using Copilot to work on an issue

Introduction

You can assign a GitHub issue to Copilot, just like you would with a human software developer. Copilot will start working on the issue, raise a pull request and when it's finished working, request a review from you. For more information, see Acerca de la asignación de tareas a Copilot.

If you haven't used Copilot to work on an issue before, you can find some useful advice for getting good results in Best practices for using Copilot to work on tasks.

Assigning an issue to Copilot

You can ask Copilot to start working on an issue by assigning the issue to Copilot.

You can assign an issue to Copilot:

• On GitHub.com (see the next section)
• On GitHub Mobile
• Via the GitHub API (see later in this article)
• Using GitHub CLI (see gh issue edit)

Assigning an issue to Copilot on GitHub.com

You can assign an issue to Copilot on GitHub.com in exactly the same way as you assign another user.

1. En GitHub, navegue hasta la página principal del repositorio.

2. Debajo del nombre del repositorio, haga clic en Problemas.

   

3. Open the issue that you want to assign to Copilot.

4. In the right side menu, click Assignees.

   

5. Click Copilot from assignees list.

   

You can also assign issues to Copilot from other places on GitHub.com:

• From the list of issues on a repository's Issues page.
• When viewing an issue in GitHub Proyectos.

Assigning an issue to Copilot via the GitHub API

You can assign an issue to Copilot by making a request to the GraphQL API.

1. Make sure you're authenticating with the API using a user token, for example a personal access token or a GitHub App user-to-server token.

2. Verify that Copilot coding agent is enabled in the repository by checking if the repository's suggestedActors in the GraphQL API includes Copilot. Replace monalisa with the repository owner, and octocat with the name.

   GraphQL

   query {
     repository(owner: "monalisa", name: "octocat") {
       suggestedActors(capabilities: [CAN_BE_ASSIGNED], first: 100) {
         nodes {
           login
           __typename
   
           ... on Bot {
             id
           }
   
           ... on User {
             id
           }
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

   If Copilot coding agent is enabled for the user and in the repository, the first node returned from the query will have the login value copilot-swe-agent.

3. Fetch the GraphQL global ID of the issue you want to assign to Copilot, replacing monalisa with the repository owner, octocat with the name and 9000 with the issue number.

   GraphQL

   query {
     repository(owner: "monalisa", name: "octocat") {
       issue(number: 9000) {
         id
         title
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Assign the issue to Copilot using the replaceActorsForAssignable GraphQL mutation. Replace ISSUE_ID with the ID returned from the previous step, and BOT_ID with the ID returned from the step before that.

   GraphQL

   mutation {
     replaceActorsForAssignable(input: {assignableId: "ISSUE_ID", assigneeIds: ["BOT_ID"]}) {
       assignable {
         ... on Issue {
           id
           title
           assignees(first: 10) {
             nodes {
               login
             }
           }
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

Tracking Copilot's progress on your issue

Shortly after you assign an issue to Copilot, Copilot will leave an 👀 reaction on the issue.

A few seconds later, Copilot will open a draft pull request, linked to your original issue. An event will appear in the issue's timeline, linking to the pull request.

Copilot will start an agent session to work on your issue. A "Copilot started work" event will appear in the pull request timeline, and as Copilot works, it will update the pull request body with regular status updates, and push commits to the branch.

If you want to check what Copilot is doing, click View session. The session log viewer is displayed, showing you a live log as Copilot works on the issue. If you want to stop Copilot from working on the issue, click Stop session. See Uso de los registros del agente de codificación de Copilot.

Once Copilot has finished, the agent session will end, and Copilot will request a review from you, triggering a notification. In addition, a "Copilot finished work" event will appear in the pull request timeline.

Working with Copilot on a pull request

After Copilot has finished working on the issue, you should review the pull request thoroughly and comment on anything that needs changed. See Reviewing a pull request created by Copilot.

Further reading

• Best practices for using Copilot to work on tasks
• Solución de problemas del agente de codificación de Copilot