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Copilot Workspace Changelog (December 20th, 2024)

Welcome to another week of Copilot Workspace updates! We have a bunch this week, so let’s jump right in! 🎉
– Copilot Workspace
– Handling large files
– Copying the branch name
– Improvements to the diff editor
– Bug fixes
– Copilot Workspace for PRs
– New file path auto-populating
– Individual file resets
– Hiding trailing whitespace
– Add indication when suggestion cannot be applied
– Accessibility improvements
– Bug fixes

Copilot Workspace

Handling large files

Workspace will now inform you when a file is too large to be displayed, and link you to view the file in the repo editor.
"image of file too large with correct warning"

Copying the branch name

Now when selecting a branch, you’ll be able to copy the branch name to your clipboard. You’ll will see a check mark after successfully copying the branch name.

Improvements to the diff editor

  • The scrolling experience has been improved, allowing you to scroll through all your files at once instead of each file individually.
  • We’ve enabled collapsing regions outside the diff, and are showing 3 lines of context padding the diff.
  • We’ve enabled word wrapping within the editor.

Bug fixes

  • Empty files now display correctly
  • Fixed a bug during plan creation that was causing Copilot Workspace to crash
  • No longer does renaming the spec question include a scroll bar
  • Fixed an issue where renamed files did not update all references across the plan, tabs, and editor. Now when you rename a file you will see that name change reflected everywhere.

Copilot Workspace for PRs

New file path auto-populating

Adding new files will auto-populate the path, making it easier to add new files to your repository.

Individual file resets

You can now reset individual files, rather than having to reset the state of all changes.

Hiding trailing whitespace

We’ve enabled an option for you to hide whitespace when viewing a diff.
showing trailing whitespace and then hiding it

Add indication when suggestion cannot be applied

We now alert you when a suggestion can’t be applied.
photo-of-improved-file-handler

Accessibility improvements

Accessibility continues to be core to the GitHub experience. Over the upcoming changelogs we’ll be highlighting improvements to our accessibility experience.

  • User operating system specific hints on keyboard shortcuts are enabled
  • A missing checkbox label on commit dialog has been added
  • Screen reader feedback on suggestions are now applied

Bug fixes

  • Copilot Workspace now informs users if a file is too large to be viewed
  • Changing files is enabled when focusing on a suggestion
  • Suggestions that would be applied to files you have removed are now deleted

Providing Feedback

Please give feedback in our GitHub Discussion. We appreciate any and all feedback you have!

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REST API insights for organizations is now generally available

As a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization owner, you and your designated users can now use API insights to visualize REST API activity for your entire organization or specific apps and users. This new feature helps you understand the sources of your REST API activity and manage against your primary rate limits—giving you visibility into the timeframe, apps, and API endpoints involved.

Who can access it

The API insights feature is available only at the organization level. By default, only organization owners can access it. However, organization owners can grant access to non-owners by creating a custom role at the organization level, assigning the permission named View organization API insights to the custom role, and then assigning the custom role to an organization member or team. See the documentation for managing organization custom roles.

Where to find it

The API insights feature is available to all GitHub Enterprise Cloud organizations. To access it on your organization home page, select Insights near the top of the page, and then select REST API on the left side of the page.

An image of an organization homepage where selecting Insights and then REST API will navigate to the new API insights feature.

How to use it

Use the Period and Interval drop-downs to choose the range of time displayed in the chart and how granularly to display REST API requests on the chart. These drop-downs also set the time range for the “Total REST requests,” the “Primary-rate-limited requests,” and the Actors table below the chart.

An image of the API insights feature page showing the Period drop-down expanded for selecting the time period of REST API activity to include.

The Actors table displays the GitHub Apps and users that made REST API requests in the current organization within the selected time period. Select a GitHub App to display its REST API activity and any primary rate-limiting. Select a user to display their personal REST API activity from personal access tokens (PATs) and OAuth apps acting on their behalf.

An image of the API insights feature page showing a table of actors, including GitHub Apps and users, that created REST API activity in the selected time period.

Tell us what you think

We welcome your feedback in the Enterprise community discussions.

Refer to the documentation for API insights for more details about understanding your organization’s REST API activity and investigating primary rate-limiting.

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Audit log and webhook events for secret scan completions

To enhance auditing and troubleshooting, we’ve introduced new webhook and audit log events to track the completion of certain secret backfill scans on repositories.

The events specify the type of backfill scan completed (e.g., Git backfill or issues backfill) and the secret types scanned, including custom patterns. Note that secrets detected through Copilot Secret Scanning are not included.

Backfill scans cover the entire repository and occur when secret scanning is enabled or patterns are updated. These events do not include information on incremental scans, which focus on new content pushed to a repository.

A repository must have a GitHub Advanced Security license to access these events.

Learn more about how to secure your repositories with secret scanning.

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OpenAI o1 is now available in GitHub Copilot Chat (preview)

OpenAI’s brand new o1 model is now available in Copilot Chat for Copilot Pro, Business and Enterprise subscribers.

The new o1 model replaces o1-preview, and offers even better performance in complex tasks.

To try it, just pick o1 (Preview) from the model picker in Visual Studio Code or in the full-screen, immersive Copilot Chat experience at github.com/copilot.

Picking the o1 model in Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code

Access to the o1 model is currently in public preview, so if you’re a Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise subscriber, an administrator must enable access to the o1 family of models before o1 shows up in the model picker.

Support for o1 is coming soon to Visual Studio, and we’re working to bring the model picker to the JetBrains IDEs.

OpenAI o1 is also available in GitHub Models – to learn more, check out the changelog.

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OpenAI o1 is now available in GitHub Models

GitHub Models makes it easy for every developer on GitHub to build AI features and products, with access to top AI models via a playground, API, and more.

Today, we’ve added access to OpenAI’s brand new o1 model. The new o1 model replaces o1-preview, and offers even better performance in complex tasks. You can learn more about this launch and its availability on both GitHub Models and Copilot in our blog post.

Start working with o1 directly in our GitHub Models playground. You can even compare it side-by-side with GPT-4o to evaluate how they work differently.

OpenAI o1 in GitHub Models

If you’re ready to jump in and integrate o1 into your code, check out our API.

Learn more about GitHub Models or join the conversation in our community discussions to share your feedback!

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GitHub Copilot for JetBrains (update to support Free Plan) [GA]

Free Tier Support for GitHub Copilot Now Available on JetBrains IDEs

We’re excited to introduce the Free Tier for GitHub Copilot, now available for JetBrains IDEs! Starting today, you can enable GitHub Copilot in your JetBrains IDE with just a GitHub account—no trials or subscriptions required.

What’s included in the Free Tier?

The Free Tier provides everything you need to get started with GitHub Copilot:
* 2000 code completions/month
* 50 chat requests/month
* 64k context window for a seamless development experience

If you reach the limits, you can explore additional tiers to continue using GitHub Copilot’s powerful features.

Why it matters

GitHub Copilot in JetBrains IDEs empowers you to write code faster, focus on creative problem-solving, and enhance productivity—all with an AI assistant right in your IDE. With the Free Tier, more developers than ever can access these tools and start improving their workflows today.

Get started

We’d love for you to try the GitHub Copilot Plugin for JetBrains IDEs and share your thoughts. Your feedback plays a crucial role in helping us improve the product.

Join the discussion

Connect with the developer community in the GitHub Community Discussion to share your experiences, ask questions, and provide feedback.

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Dependabot updates ceases supporting npm version 6 [Closing Down]

On January 20th, 2025, Dependabot will end support for npm version 6, which has reached its end-of-life. If you continue to use npm version 6, there’s a risk that Dependabot will not create pull requests to update dependencies. In that case, we recommend updating to a supported release of npm. As of December 2024, the newest supported release of npm is version 11. View NPM’s official documentation for more information about supported releases.

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Windows Server 2025 is now in public preview

The Windows 2025 server image for GitHub Actions hosted runners is now available in public preview. To start using this image in your Actions workflows, update your workflow file to include runs-on: windows-2025.

Please note that the Windows 2025 image has a different list of installed tools and tool versions. See the full list of changed software including differences in the announcement.

If you spot any issues with your workflows when using Windows Server 2025, or if you have feedback on the software installed on the image, please let us know by creating an issue in the runner-images repository. While the runner image is in preview, you may experience longer queue times during peak usage hours.

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You can now view real-time token and latency usage in GitHub Models (GA)

The GitHub Models playground now shows your real-time token usage, including both input and output counts, as well as latency information in its responses. The analytics are accessible via the top bar, helping you more efficiently optimize prompts, evaluate model costs, and monitor response times.

Additionally, clicking on the information in the top bar now opens a modal with more details about the token and latency metrics:

Token and latency information in GitHub Models

GitHub Models makes it easy for every developer on GitHub to build AI features and products, with access to top AI models via a playground, API, and more.

To learn more about GitHub Models, check out the docs. You can also join our dedicated community discussion to discuss this update, swap tips, and share feedback.

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Organization Private Registry Configuration for Java and C# CodeQL Scans

CodeQL build-mode: none scans can now access private dependencies stored in private registries (e.g. Artifactory) for Java and C# projects. This makes your scans more comprehensive, ensuring you receive all important alerts regardless of where your dependencies are stored.

Previously, build-mode: none code scans with the default setup were unable to fetch code for dependent packages stored in private registries, which could result in incomplete analysis. Now, organization administrators can configure access credentials for private registries at the organization level. This enhancement allows CodeQL scans in child repositories to retrieve all necessary dependencies, enabling comprehensive code analysis when using the code scanning default setup.

This feature is currently in public preview for GitHub Advanced Security customers.

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Announcing GitHub Copilot Free

GitHub Copilot Free

With the new GitHub Copilot Free plan, anyone can experiment with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code and on GitHub! By simply signing in with your personal GitHub account, you will have access to 2000 Code Completions and 50 chat messages per month!

Here are a few things to try out today:

  • Accelerate your development with code completion
  • Execute edits across multiple files with Copilot Edits
  • Choose the model that works best for you, starting with Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet
  • Access the Copilot Extensions to customize your development experience

To get started, visit our immersive experience and learn more in our announcement blog.

Stay tuned for updates as we work to continually enhance your developer experience and be sure to share feedback in Discussions.

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Copilot Chat on GitHub is now generally available for all users

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot Chat immersive mode

Elevate your coding skills with our redesigned Copilot Chat, now featuring a dedicated home on GitHub.

What’s new in Copilot Chat on GitHub:

  • Immersive chat experience at github.com/copilot: Copilot is now just one click away, offering a seamless and immersive chat directly on GitHub.
  • Smarter and faster responses: Whether you’re brainstorming, problem-solving, or just exploring ideas, Copilot’s answers are sharper, richer, and more naturally attuned to your needs.
  • Real-time interaction with your codebase: Ask questions and get immediate answers about your codebase, helping you understand how things work faster than ever.
  • Generate and refine code effortlessly: Use conversational prompts to create and refine code snippets or entire files. Iterate seamlessly until you achieve the desired outcome.
  • Navigate GitHub with natural language: Summarize issues and pull requests, retrieve specific information, and explore repositories without navigating through the UI.
  • Leverage a variety of models: Choose from different AI models to get the best results based on your specific use case.
  • Find and return to previous chats: Easily revisit past conversations, keep track of important insights, code iterations and decision-making processes by accessing your entire conversation history whenever you need it.

Expanded capabilities across your entire codebase

As part of this update, we’ve removed limits on how many repositories you can index. Now, you can enjoy the full capabilities of Copilot Chat across your entire codebase, whether you’re working on multiple projects or a large monolith.

Your feedback helps us continue to improve. Let us know what you think using the in-product feedback option or pop it into the GitHub Community at any time.

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Improved filtering for secret scanning alerts

You can now more easily filter secret scanning alerts, with new filter options and advanced filtering.

  • Enterprise and organization level list views now include a new menu with commonly used and suggested filter options, like bypassed secrets, publicly leaked secrets, and those with enterprise duplicates. The repository level list view now supports a new “advanced filtering” menu.
  • The experimental toggle has been removed from the alert list header UI, but you can still access it from the sidebar navigation menu and with the results:experimental filter.
  • Public leak and multi-repository indicators are fully supported across list views, including alert list views and the REST API. In the UI, in addition to menu options, you can access these filters with is:multi-repository and is:publicly-leaked. These indicators are also included in webhook and audit log event payloads for secret scanning alerts.

What are public leak and multi-repo labels?

To help you triage and remediate secret leaks more effectively, GitHub secret scanning now indicates if a secret detected in your repository has also leaked publicly with a public leak label on the alert. The alert also indicates if the secret was exposed in other repositories across your organization or enterprise with a multi-repository label.

These labels provide additional understanding into the distribution of an exposed secret, while also making it easier to assess an alert’s risk and urgency. For example, a secret which has a known associated exposure in a public location has a higher likelihood of exploitation. Detection of public leaks is only currently supported for provider-based patterns.

The multi-repository label makes it easier to de-duplicate alerts and is supported for all secret types, including custom patterns. You can only view and navigate to other enterprise repositories with duplicate alerts if you have appropriate permissions to view them.

Both indicators currently apply only for newly created alerts.

Learn more

Learn more about reviewing alert labels and how to secure your repositories with secret scanning. Let us know what you think by participating in our GitHub community discussion or signing up for a 60 minute feedback session.

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GitHub Models introduces AI-powered system prompt enhancement [GA]

You can now use the new “Improve Prompt” button next to your system prompt in the Models Playground.

A system prompt is a predefined instruction or guideline that sets the behavior and tone for an AI model, helping it respond in a specific way to user inputs. This AI-powered tool will refine and optimize your prompt to help you get the best possible results from your chosen model.

Prompt improvements

GitHub Models makes it easy for every developer on GitHub to build AI features and products. Easily try, compare, and implement models in your code for free via the playground or API.

Try the “Improve Prompt” feature in the playground, learn more about GitHub Models, or join the conversation in our community discussions.

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Find and fix Actions workflows vulnerabilities with CodeQL (Public Preview)

You can now enable code scanning in your GitHub Actions workflow files. By opting-in to this feature, you can enhance the security of repositories using GitHub Actions.

Actions analysis support includes a set of CodeQL queries developed by the GitHub Security Lab to capture common misconfigurations of workflow files that can lead to security vulnerabilities. You can now easily run these queries as part of Code Scanning’s default or advanced setup and use Copilot Autofix to get remediation suggestions on your findings.

You can opt-in to the public preview by selecting the “GitHub Actions” language via code scanning default setup, or by adding the actions language to your existing advanced setup. New repositories onboarding to default setup after today will start analyzing Actions workflows right away. Existing repositories will not be automatically opted-in as part of the public preview.

Learn more about configuring default setup for code scanning, securing your use of Actions, and vulnerabilities identified with CodeQL.

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Copilot Autofix can now be generated with the REST API (Public Preview)

New REST API endpoints for code scanning allow you to request the generation of Copilot Autofix for code scanning alerts. These endpoints also provide the Autofix generation status, along with metadata and AI-generated descriptions for the fixes, and enable you to apply Autofix to a branch. This functionality can be particularly useful for addressing security vulnerabilities programmatically and for tracking the status of alerts with Copilot Autofixes in your system.

To generate Copilot Autofix, call the POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{number}/autofix endpoint.
Additionally, you can retrieve the Autofix and commit it by using the GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{number}/autofix endpoint followed by POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{number}/autofix/commits.

For more information, see: About Copilot Autofix for CodeQL code scanning. If you have feedback for Copilot Autofix for code scanning, please join the discussion here.

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Replacement of announcement banner GraphQL fields

Announcement banner fields in GraphQL for enterprises and organizations are being replaced with a new announcementBanner object to simplify their access and better follow our standard styles. The new fields are available today, and the old fields will be removed on April 1, 2025.

The following fields are being removed from the enterprise and organization GraphQL objects:

  • announcement
  • announcementCreatedAt
  • announcementExpiresAt
  • announcementUserDismissible

The new GraphQL structure for these fields is:

announcementBanner {
  message
  createdAt
  expiresAt
  isUserDismissible
}

Learn more about announcement banners for organizations on GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

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Mistral Large 24.11 is now available on GitHub Models (GA)

The latest model from Mistral, Mistral Large 24.11, is now available in GitHub Models. This is an advanced Large Language Model (LLM) with state-of-the-art reasoning, knowledge and coding capabilities.

GitHub Models is a catalog and playground of AI models to help you build AI features and products.

Start exploring this model today in the playground or via the API. Compare it to other Mistral models using the side-by-side feature in GitHub Models, and see the improvement for yourself!

To learn more about GitHub Models, check out the docs. You can also join our community discussions.

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Llama 3.3 70B Instruct is now available on GitHub Models (GA)

Meta has released a new model, Llama 3.3 70B Instruct, now available in GitHub Models. It provides similar performance to Llama 3.1 405B, but at a significantely lower cost, making it a more accessible option for developers.

GitHub Models is a catalog and playground of AI models to help you build AI features and products.

Start exploring Llama 3.3 70B Instruct today in the playground or via the API. Compare it to the old model using the side-by-side feature in GitHub Models, and see the improvement for yourself!

To learn more about GitHub Models, check out the docs. You can also join our dedicated community discussion.

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GitHub Issues & Projects – Close issue as a duplicate, REST API for sub-issues, and more!

Following our “Evolving GitHub Issues” announcement we’ve continued to improve the experience based on your feedback, including closing an issue as a duplicate, a REST API for sub-issues, and expanding the limits for both sub-issues and issue types.

These new features are all available in public preview for you to try. To gain access for your organization, please sign up here.

🧹 Close an issue as a duplicate

You can now close an issue as a duplicate of another issue, making it easier to manage your issues and provide more clarity on why they were closed.

When closing an issue, select Close as duplicate from the dropdown to search for and select the duplicate issue. You’ll then see an event in the timeline and note at the top making it clear why it was closed.

⚙ REST API support for sub-issues

You can now use the REST API to view, add, remove, and reprioritize sub-issues, making it easier to automate your use of sub-issues. Check out the documentation to learn more.

➕ Increased limits for sub-issues and issue types

You can now have up to 100 sub-issues per parent issue (up from 50), as well as up to 25 issue types in an organization (up from 10), making it easier to manage, classify, and break down work.

Issue type organization settings showing maximum limit of 25 issue types

📱 Issue types on GitHub Mobile

You can now view, add, and update issue types on GitHub Mobile.

Issue types on GitHub Mobile

🔍 Improved filtering for sub-issues and issue types

You can use the has: and no: filters to search for sub-issues and issue types both from a project and the repository issues page, making it easier to find the exact set of issues you’re looking for and make updates.

Issue filtering using has filter

Example filters include:
– no:type to find all issues that do not yet have a type
– no:parent-issue to find all issues without a parent issue
– has:sub-issue to find all issues that have sub-issues

✨ Additional improvements

On top of the many bug fixes we’ve shipped, we’ve also introduced the following improvements:
– If the sub-issue is from a different repository than the parent issue, you will now see the repository name in the sub-issues list.
– In GitHub markdown, pasting in a project link will now show the project name as well as more project details on hover.
– Projects insights charts now use Highcharts, which is an industry standard library for charts, improving our accessibility of projects insights.
– You can now use the UpdateProjectV2Field GraphQL API mutation to directly update all single select field options in one API.

✍ Tell us what you think!

Join the discussion in the community discussion to share your feedback.

See how to use GitHub for project planning with GitHub Issues, check out what’s on the roadmap, and learn more in the documentation.

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