github-copilot

Visual Studio 2022 17.14.30 bundles the Azure MCP Server into the Azure development workload. Copilot Chat can hit 230+ Azure tools across 45 services without installing a thing.

Visual Studio 18.5 GA ships a guided Debugger Agent workflow in Copilot Chat that forms a hypothesis, sets breakpoints, rides along through a repro, validates against runtime state, and proposes a fix.

Visual Studio 2026 18.5.0 lets GitHub Copilot load Agent Skills from .github/skills, .claude/skills, and ~/.copilot/skills. Reusable SKILL.md instruction packs travel with your repo.

GitHub Copilot Modernization is pitched as an Assess, Plan, Execute loop for migrating legacy .NET apps. The assessment phase is where the value lives: an inventory report, categorized blockers, and file-level remediation guidance you can diff like code.

The .NET team shares ten months of real data on running GitHub's Copilot Coding Agent in dotnet/runtime: 878 PRs, a 67.9% merge rate, and clear lessons on where AI-assisted development helps and where it still falls short.