Use Copilot coding agent with Windows projects

Source: GitHub Changelog

Overview

Copilot coding agent is an asynchronous, autonomous background agent. Delegate a task to Copilot, and it works in its own development environment, powered by GitHub Actions.

By default, the agent uses a Linux development environment. If your project targets Windows, you can now configure Copilot coding agent to use a Windows environment, still powered by GitHub Actions.

With a working development environment, Copilot can ensure your project builds and that your automated tests and linter pass, giving you a green pull request on the first try.

Configuring a Windows Development Environment

Configure Copilot coding agent to use Windows by adding a copilot-setup-steps.yml file to your repository with a custom runs-on setting.

Firewall Considerations

Copilot coding agent’s integrated firewall is not compatible with Windows. It is recommended to use Windows only with self‑hosted runners or larger runners with Azure private networking, where you can implement your own network controls.

Further Reading

To learn more about switching Copilot coding agent to a Windows development environment, see the GitHub Docs article “Customizing the development environment for Copilot coding agent”.