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Reviewing a Pull Request Created by Copilot — Quick Notes

The Golden Rule

Always review Copilot's PR thoroughly before merging. You are still responsible for the code that gets merged.

Reviewing Copilot's Changes

  • Review the diff just like any other PR
  • Use @copilot in PR comments to ask for changes → Copilot pushes commits directly to the same branch
  • Prefer a separate PR instead? Ask in plain English: "@copilot open a new PR for this fix"
  • Want to fix something yourself? Just check out the branch and push manually
  • Use the model picker when submitting a plain PR comment to change the AI model (not available in review comments)

Tip: Batch your review comments together rather than submitting them one by one — it's more efficient for Copilot to handle them all at once.

How to Know Copilot Has Seen Your Comment

When Copilot picks up your comment and starts a new session:

  • Eyes emoji is added as a reaction to your comment
  • A "Copilot has started work" event appears in the PR timeline

Important Notes on Approvals

If your repo requires a minimum number of PR approvals:

  • Your own approval does NOT count toward the required number on a Copilot-created PR
  • Someone else must approve before it can be merged

Custom Agents & Context

  • If the PR was created by a custom agent, mentioning @copilot will continue using that same custom agent (not the default one)
  • Copilot remembers context from previous sessions on the same PR — it gets faster and more reliable over time

Managing GitHub Actions Workflows

  • By default, GitHub Actions will NOT run automatically when Copilot pushes changes
  • This is a security measure — Copilot's changes could affect workflow files with access to secrets
  • To allow workflows to run → click "Approve and run workflows" button in the PR merge box
  • You can optionally configure auto-approval of workflows in agent settings

Giving Feedback on Copilot's Work

  • Use the thumbs up / thumbs down buttons on Copilot's PRs and comments
  • Thumbs down prompts you for a reason + optional comment → helps Anthropic improve Copilot