Microsoft has released its new GitHub Copilot app in technical preview. This GitHub-native desktop app allows you to do agentic development all the way up to a pull request review. If you ever want to get your hands dirty and mess with code, then you can always open your code editor from the GitHub Copilot app.
With the GitHub Copilot app, Microsoft has focused on three core areas: starting sessions from your existing GitHub artifacts, allowing you to work in focused sessions where everything has its own space, and allowing you to steer, validate, and ship in one place.
Regarding the first area, the new app allows you to start working from an issue, pull request, prompt, or previous session. To help you find issues and pull requests across connected repositories that need addressing, Microsoft has given you the inbox so you can see what needs attention. To make outputs more relevant, the app lets you bring context with you such as issue details, repository state, review comments, and checks.
The second core area–focused sessions–ensures that each branch, file, conversation, or task state has its own space so you can keep things separate, even if you have more than one thing to do. With the new app, you can pause and resume, even if you leave a session and come back you’ll resume where you left off. You can keep separate tasks isolated across one repository or many, and you can turn skills and prompts into workflows for triage, dependency updates, release notes, cleanup, or routine pull requests.
Finally, the app ensures that it is easy to get any code changes reviewed, tested, and ready to merge. After making code changes, the app lets you review the plan and diff to see what changed, leave feedback, and guide the next iteration. You can also validate changes by running commands, opening previews, and testing from the integrated terminal and browser. The app also lets you move from a session to a pull request with the same reviews, checks, and merge requirements your team already uses. It also allows you to use Agent Merge to address review comments, fix failing checks, and merge once your conditions are met.
The GitHub Copilot app is limited access right now but GitHub Copilot Pro and Pro+ subscribers can sign up for early access as the technical preview expands. Microsoft said Business and Enterprise subscribers will get access as availability rolls out through the week. To learn more, check out the GitHub Copilot app documentation.
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