Using Copilot CLI in GitHub Actions with GITHUB_TOKEN

Run CLI de Copilot in a GitHub Actions workflow using the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN, without a personal access token.

En este artículo

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

Enabling the policy

For workflows in your organization to use CLI de Copilot with GITHUB_TOKEN, the policy must be enabled. This policy is enabled by default for organizations with CLI de Copilot 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 Administración de directivas y características para GitHub Copilot en su organización.
  2. Under "CLI de Copilot", confirm that Allow use of CLI de Copilot billed to the organization is selected.

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 CLI de Copilot directly in a workflow

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

Advertencia

Invoking CLI de Copilot directly in workflow steps gives it broad access to your workflow environment. Review your workflow triggers and permissions carefully before using this approach. Workflows triggered by pull requests from forks are particularly at risk.

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.

Nota:

You must be on a recent version of CLI de Copilot to use GITHUB_TOKEN authentication. Update with copilot update, or reinstall the latest version with npm install -g @github/copilot.