GitHub Copilot app for Beginners: Getting started

AI coding tools often begin with a chat window. While that works for quick questions or generating code, real software development rarely happens in a straight line. One minute you’re fixing a bug, the next you’re reviewing a pull request, digging into an unfamiliar part of the codebase, or exploring a new idea.

The GitHub Copilot app is designed for that kind of workflow. Instead of treating AI as a single conversation, it gives you a workspace where you can manage multiple agent sessions, switch between tasks without losing momentum, and work with AI agents across the different parts of your workflow.

Your work starts with a project

Agent sessions are connected to a project, giving each session the repository context needed for a specific task.

From the GitHub Copilot app home screen, you can choose a project you’ve worked with before or add a new one from GitHub or your local machine. Once a project is selected, you can start a session with the codebase, files, and tools needed to begin working on a task.

For example, you might want to add a breadcrumb navigation component to an existing application. Instead of manually searching through files to find the right place to make the change, you can describe the update you want to make. The session can examine the project, identify relevant files, make the changes, and run tests to help validate the work.

By starting each session with the project already connected, you can spend more time working and less time preparing your environment.

Keep multiple threads moving

Once you’ve selected a project and started an agent session, you can create additional sessions for other questions, ideas, or tasks without interrupting your existing work. Quick Chat lets you start a new conversation from the Copilot app home screen. Each conversation can focus on a different area of work, giving you a dedicated space to explore ideas, ask questions, or work through changes.

For example, you can open a Quick Chat session to ask Copilot about Copilot, such as how worktrees function in the app, while another agent session continues working on a project update. You can also use Quick Chat to investigate how your codebase works, explore potential approaches, or gather context before deciding how to move forward.

When you return to your original session, you can pick up where you left off, review the changes, and make any updates needed to move the task forward.

Multiple sessions let you follow different threads of work without losing track of where each task stands.

Make your work interactive with canvas

When working on a UI change, seeing the result can be just as important as reviewing the code behind it. The GitHub Copilot app lets you open a browser canvas directly within your workflow, giving you a way to preview your application and make changes based on what you see.

A canvas is a shared, interactive space built around work artifacts, such as a plan, a kanban board, a checklist, or a running application. It provides a visual representation of your work alongside your conversation, so you can move beyond a text-based view of the task.

Rather than opening a new terminal and launching a separate browser, you can create a browser canvas in the GitHub Copilot app using the /create-canvas slash command.

For example, after asking Copilot to update a UI component, you can create a canvas with: /create-canvas Open this app in a browser canvas

This opens your application in a canvas where you can preview the result. If something needs adjusting, you can Enable Canvas Dev Mode and use Pick & Polish to select elements directly in the canvas and use them as context for your next request. You can point to a specific part of the page, request an update, and continue refining the result.

Keep work moving with Agent Merge

Once your changes are ready, the next step is creating a pull request and moving through the standard CI and review process. Agent Merge helps extend that workflow beyond the initial code change by monitoring the pull request and assisting with tasks that come up during review.

To start an Agent Merge workflow, open the pull request options in the Copilot app and select Agent Merge. From there, you can choose which actions Agent Merge can take, such as addressing review feedback, helping resolve CI failures, or handling merge conflicts.

After Agent Merge is enabled, it monitors the pull request as it moves through the review and CI process. If issues come up, it can help address requested changes and prepare the pull request for merge. Once the required checks have passed, you can choose to merge the pull request.

Start exploring the Copilot app

The Copilot app brings together the different parts of your development workflow in one place. Start with a project. From there, you can create separate sessions for different threads of work, create a canvas to visualize and refine your work, and keep changes moving through the pull request process with Agent Merge.

There’s more to explore, including additional ways to customize and extend your workflow. The best way to learn the GitHub Copilot app is to try it yourself.

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