GitHub Copilot Automations: New Triggers, Tools and AI Credit Limits
GitHub CopilotGitHub expanded Copilot Automations with API-based triggers, 24 new GitHub event triggers, chained automations, 20 new GitHub tools and support for tools from custom MCP servers. New cost controls cap AI credits per run, day, week or month. Automations are available on Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise plans.
Key Takeaways
- A new REST API trigger connects automations to any external system such as Jira, Sentry or PagerDuty.
- 24 additional GitHub event triggers span issues, pull requests, discussions and security alerts.
- Automations can chain, using "Automation run succeeded/failed" triggers and the "Can be triggered by" setting.
- 20 new GitHub tools plus custom MCP server tools expand what an automation can do, with tools chosen individually.
- AI credit limits per run, day, week or month let teams cap spend on each automation.
- Automations are available on Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise plans for any repository with write access.
More ways to start an automation
Copilot Automations combine prompts, triggers and tools into workflows. Triggers define when an automation runs, and tools define what it can do. This update broadens both and adds spending limits.
Trigger from any external system
Automations can now be started through the GitHub REST API using the Trigger an automation endpoint. A webhook handler in front of Jira, Sentry or PagerDuty can pass context to an automation that triages tickets, fixes new issues or investigates incidents.
24 new GitHub triggers
Automations can respond to many more events:
- Issues: assigned, sub-issue added, labeled, closed, reopened and status changed.
- Pull requests: assigned, ready for review, labeled, merge conflict, review submitted, review requested, closed, reopened, converted to draft, review dismissed, and review thread resolved or unresolved.
- Discussions: opened, updated, and comment or reply created.
- Security alerts: code scanning, secret scanning and Dependabot alert created.
Chain automations together
Each trigger has a "Can be triggered by" setting that defaults to Only users. Setting it to Users and Copilot lets events from other automations, such as a pull request opened by Copilot, fire the trigger. New "Automation run succeeded" and "Automation run failed" triggers run one automation after another finishes, enabling multi-step workflows.
More tools
Twenty new GitHub tools let automations upload image or video attachments to issues and pull requests, retry workflow runs, merge pull requests, update comments, mark pull requests ready for review or convert them to drafts, hide and unhide comments, remove reactions, and read and comment on discussions. Automations can also use tools from custom MCP servers: the server is added in repository settings and individual tools are chosen from the tool picker, so each automation only gets the tools it needs.
Cost controls
Each automation can now carry optional AI credit limits per run, per day, per week and per month. A run stops when it hits its per-run limit, and once a daily, weekly or monthly limit is reached new runs do not start until the period resets. Automations without limits behave as before. Automations are available with Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise, in any repository where the user has write access.