Using Copilot CLI in GitHub Actions with GITHUB_TOKEN

For background on authentication options and how billing works when running Copilot CLI in GitHub Actions, see About using Copilot CLI in GitHub Actions.

Enabling the policy

For workflows in your organization to use Copilot CLI with GITHUB_TOKEN, the policy must be enabled. This policy is enabled by default for organizations with Copilot CLI turned on, but you can confirm or change this setting in your organization's policy settings.

1. Navigate to the policy settings for your organization. See Managing policies and features for GitHub Copilot in your organization.
2. Under "Copilot CLI", confirm that Allow use of Copilot CLI billed to the organization is selected.

Recommended approach: GitHub Agentic Workflows

For most automation use cases, we recommend using GitHub Agentic Workflows rather than invoking copilot directly in workflow steps. Agentic workflows use GITHUB_TOKEN authentication by default and include additional guardrails suited for automated environments.

For setup instructions, see Quick Start in the GitHub Agentic Workflows documentation. Your workflow must also grant the copilot-requests: write permission. See Permissions in the GitHub Agentic Workflows documentation.

Using Copilot CLI directly in a workflow

If you need to invoke Copilot CLI directly in a workflow step, install the CLI with npm.

Example workflow

name: Copilot CLI example
on: [push]

permissions:
  contents: read
  copilot-requests: write

jobs:
  copilot:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Install Copilot CLI
        run: npm install -g @github/copilot
      - name: Run Copilot
        run: copilot --yolo -p "Summarize the changes in this commit"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: $

Key details about this example:

• The --yolo flag suppresses interactive prompts, which is required for non-interactive environments like GitHub Actions.
• The copilot-requests: write permission is required for the workflow to make Copilot requests.
• The GITHUB_TOKEN provided by GitHub Actions handles authentication automatically, no additional secrets are needed.