You're reading from The GitHub Copilot Handbook A practical guide to transforming the software development life cycle with GitHub Copilot

Product type Paperback

Published in Nov 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781806116638

Length 290 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Tools

CoPilot

Concepts

Web Design

Authors (2):

Rob Bos

Randy Pagels

View More author details

Table of Contents (18) Chapters

Preface

1. What is GitHub Copilot?

2. GitHub Copilot Explained FREE CHAPTER

3. Getting Started with Generative AI

4. Choosing the Right GitHub Copilot Plan

5. Getting Started with GitHub Copilot

6. Mastering GitHub Copilot in Your IDE: Inline Suggestions, Chat, and Agent Mode

7. Going Beyond Code: Debugging, Terminal, and Collaboration with GitHub Copilot

8. Exploring GitHub Copilot Integrations

9. Collaborating with Copilot on GitHub.com: Issues, PRs, Reviews, and Coding Agent

10. Extending GitHub Copilot with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)

11. Getting the Most Out of GitHub Copilot

12. Navigating the GitHub Copilot Learning Curve

13. Building an Internal GitHub Copilot Community

14. Changing the Narrative: Reframing Engineering with AI

15. Unlock Your Exclusive Benefits

Unlock this Book’s Free Benefits in 3 Easy Steps

16. Other Books You May Enjoy

17. Index

Using MCP for the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent

The GitHub Copilot Coding Agent becomes more powerful when you extend it with MCP. The MCP server allows GitHub Copilot to safely call out to other systems, fetch context, and use tools beyond the code editor. A developer would use this feature when they want GitHub Copilot to not only help write code, but also pull in live project data, run checks, or automate repetitive tasks.

For instance, a developer working with Jira might want GitHub Copilot to surface open issues assigned to them, highlight upcoming deadlines, or even add a quick status update without leaving VS Code. These are the kinds of tasks MCP makes possible.

Configuring the MCP server on GitHub.com

To start, a repository administrator must configure MCP servers on GitHub.com. From the repository’s main page, click Settings. In the left sidebar, under Code & automation, select Copilot, then Coding Agent. Here, you’ll find the section to add MCP...