Playbook
โ THE AI DEV PLAYBOOK โ
A structured map of GitHub Copilot tools and concepts across the SDLC: planning, development, review, testing, security, and operations. Note: this is a personal learning resource and some details may be outdated โ always refer to the latest GitHub documentation โ for the source of truth.
Introduction
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๐ค Mona
A platform-level overview of GitHub and GitHub Copilot.
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NO.01GitHub
The AI-native developer platform used by more than 180 million developers. From Pull Requests to GitHub Copilot, GitHub continues to shape the history of software development.
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NO.02GitHub Copilot
The world's most widely used AI development tool. An orchestrator that lets you freely combine major AI models with a variety of surfaces.
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NO.03Hands-on
A workshop where you get hands-on with the concepts in this playbook by rebuilding a simplified version of this very playbook site from scratch โ together with Copilot. Touches MCP / Instructions / Agent Skills / Plan mode / Cloud Agent / Code Review / Agentic Workflow end-to-end.
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Plan
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๐ค Team Manager
Plan with Issues and Projects, then prepare the AI harness with MCP servers, instruction files, agent skills, and custom agents.
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NO.3.4Collaboration Tools
GitHub's toolbox for working together. Starting from the Pull Request GitHub invented, a quick tour of Issues & Sub-issues, Discussions, and Projects, with the "why it's good" for each and the official links to dig deeper.
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NO.3.5Harness Engineering
The discipline of designing the scaffold that lets agents operate safely and effectively โ tools, constraints, permissions, and external connections.
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NO.04MCP Server
MCP Server (Model Context Protocol)
MCP is a method for providing additional context to AI models.
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NO.05Instructions
Persistent rule files that give AI standing development guidelines at the repository or file level, so every teammate's Copilot follows the same conventions.
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NO.06Agent Skills
Reusable instruction packs that teach Copilot agents how to handle specialized tasks โ loaded automatically when the request matches, no re-explaining required.
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NO.07Custom Agent
A specialist profile that bundles role, tools, and behavior together for Copilot. Switch between Planner, Reviewer, and Tester personas with their own permissions.
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NO.7.5Hooks
A mechanism for injecting custom scripts into the agent execution lifecycle (session start, prompt submission, pre/post tool execution, error, session end). Configured via `.github/hooks/hooks.json`. The most powerful hook is PreToolUse, which can deny specific commands (rm -rf, sudo, pushes to production, etc.) to block the agent. Works with both Copilot CLI and Cloud Agent.
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NO.8.5Context Engineering
The art of designing the context you pass to AI โ not too little, not too much, just the information needed to complete the task.
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Develop
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๐ค Junior Developer
Code in shared Codespaces environments with Plan / Agent mode, Copilot Chat, and the CLI. Delegate work to Cloud Agent for parallel development.
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NO.3.5Copilot Chat
The synchronous conversation surface for Copilot. Available across IDE, GitHub.com, and Mobile, with the deepest harness on the IDE side.
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NO.14Copilot CLI
Copilot living in the terminal. An IDE-agnostic "colleague in the terminal" that lets you move between planning โ implementation โ review with just Shift+Tab.
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NO.15Cloud Agent
A "doppelganger" that works through the night even when you leave the IDE. Assign an Issue and it implements, verifies, and returns with a PR from a GitHub Actions runner.
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NO.15.5Partner agents
A mechanism to launch coding agents other than Copilot โ such as Claude or Codex โ from VS Code and GitHub with the same feel as Copilot.
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Copilot App
A purpose-built desktop app for agent-driven development. Run multiple agents in parallel and handle issue triage, implementation, review, and merge in one placeโwithout bouncing between IDE, terminal, and browser.
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NO.17Codespaces
Customizable remote development environments hosted in the cloud. The ideal AI-driven development playground for safely sandboxing AI experiments and work.
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NO.17.5Spaces
A shared place to organize the context you want Copilot to use: code, issues, pull requests, docs, notes, images, uploads, and instructions that ground Copilot's answers.
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Review
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๐ค Senior Developer
Let Copilot perform automated code review so humans can focus on final judgment.
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Pull Requests
The mechanism GitHub created in 2008 that changed how developers collaborate. The propose โ discuss โ review โ merge flow, now backed by rulesets, automated checks, and Copilot review.
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NO.09Copilot Code Review
Copilot can be assigned as a reviewer โ manually or automatically โ to read code intent and return inline comments, PR summaries, and fix suggestions. Goes from pre-review noise reduction all the way to full automation.
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Test & Secure
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๐ค DevSecOps Engineer
Automate tests with GitHub Actions, and protect quality with Code Scanning, Secret Scanning, and Dependabot.
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NO.19.2GitHub Actions
GitHub's native CI/CD and automation platform. Steps written in .github/workflows/*.yml run automatically on push / PR / schedule. Public repos are free; private repos get a free tier plus pay-as-you-go. Cloud Agent and Copilot Code Review also run on top of this.
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NO.19.3Dependabot
GitHub's official bot that monitors repository dependencies for vulnerabilities and opens automated fix PRs. Built on the dependency graph, it runs in three layers โ Security alerts, Security updates, and Version updates. Free for public and private repos.
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NO.19.4Code Scanning
CodeQL statically analyzes source code for vulnerabilities, and Copilot Autofix generates fix PRs automatically. Default setup requires no config file โ just one click. Free for public repos; private repos need GHAS / Code Security.
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NO.19.6Secret Scanning
GitHub's secret detection feature that automatically finds API keys and tokens mixed into commits, issues, PRs, and history. Push protection can block commits before they land. Free for public repos; push protection is also free for private repos on a per-user opt-in basis.
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NO.19.8GHAS
GitHub Advanced Security
GitHub's paid security product suite. Split into GitHub Secret Protection ($19) and GitHub Code Security ($30) in April 2025, billed per active committer. Public repos remain free.
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Operate
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๐ค Whole Team
Automate operations with agentic workflows, visualize AI usage with Copilot Metrics, and accumulate knowledge through Memory.
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NO.16Agentic Workflow
A new kind of automation that runs AI agents on top of GitHub Actions. Write what you want done in natural language Markdown and get workflows that can reason and act.
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NO.16.5Token Optimization
Tokens get cheaper by raising agent quality, not by shaving prompts. Use model choice, context engineering, deterministic guardrails, and the right agent configs to make every token count.
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NO.18Copilot Metrics
Metrics API and dashboard for visualizing GitHub Copilot usage and impact. Details coming soon.
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NO.19Copilot Memory
A mechanism for Copilot to remember and reuse knowledge learned while working in a repository, passing it on to future selves and the whole team. Gets smarter the more you use it.
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Operational Tools
GitHub's toolbox for putting collaboration into operation. A quick tour of private Packages and the container registry, and Integrations (GitHub Apps).
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Administration
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๐ค Enterprise Admin
Govern licenses, policies, and billing at the Enterprise and Organization level. Decide safely who gets access to what.
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NO.29.5Enterprise Setup
From creating a GitHub Enterprise Cloud (EMU) account to configuring SSO โ spin up a 30-day free trial, set up OIDC or SAML via Entra ID, and get your team ready to log in.
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NO.30Copilot Licence
How GitHub Copilot is billed at the Enterprise level, assigned at the Enterprise or Org level, and how policies / billing behave when a user belongs to multiple organizations โ including outside collaborators and EMU guest collaborators.
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NO.30.5Usage-based Billing
Usage-based Billing (UBB)
On June 1, 2026 GitHub Copilot moved to usage-based billing (UBB). Cost is tied to the tokens actually processed (input, output, cached), and usage is shown and budgeted in GitHub AI credits (1 credit = $0.01 USD). The core principles, aligned with the docs.
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Governance
The layer that controls "who can do what" at the Enterprise and Organization level. Covers per-repository permission roles, the repo โ org โ enterprise policy hierarchy, and enterprise-managed settings (managed-settings.json) that centrally govern Copilot agents and clients.
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