A GitHub Copilot app is an agent that takes on work and does it on its own — not just another name in the chat box. At Microsoft Build, GitHub launched the Copilot app and partners' agent apps: they can take an issue, run the task themselves, and hand back a pull request. For developers, the job is to build their own agent as a GitHub App-style application, then install and enable it.
The old extensions only worked when @-mentioned inside Copilot chat, where they answered questions and called tools; they were discontinued on November 10, 2025, in favor of MCP. Copilot apps run in the desktop Copilot app, where they can run several sessions in parallel, take on issues, change code, and submit pull requests; they are currently in public preview, with partner apps already listed.
How developers publish
Publishing takes four steps: first, build the agent as a GitHub App so that it exposes an agent on GitHub; then install the app on a personal account or organization and enable the agent features, going through OAuth authorization on first run; in enterprise organizations an administrator may also need to turn on the Copilot policy for Agent apps; to bring your own agent app to GitHub, join the official waitlist first. Using one is straightforward too: assign an issue to the agent in a repository, or mention it with in a pull request comment and state the request; session usage is billed against Copilot credits. The Copilot SDK became generally available in the same announcement on June 2, 2026, supporting six languages — Node.js, Python, Go, .NET, Rust, and Java — so developers can embed capabilities in their own tools using the same agent runtime.
Three similar names — don't mix them up
Don't mix up three things: the Copilot extension in VS Code is unaffected — what was shut down is the server-side Copilot extension built as a GitHub App; Copilot CLI plugins are a separate extension mechanism for the terminal; and Copilot apps in Microsoft 365 are yet another line. Agent apps are still in public preview, and their capabilities and behavior may change, so trial them on a small scale before wiring them into production. Also, the apps run on GitHub's cloud agent, so grant permissions on a least-privilege basis and check which repository permissions an app requests before installing it.
