Manual PR Reviews

Manual PR Reviews

When you’re ready for feedback on a pull request, you can invite GitHub Copilot to perform an AI-assisted code review. A manual request is the most direct way to do this — you choose when Copilot reviews your code and which pull requests it analyzes.

This is especially useful if you only want Copilot to review certain changes (for example, larger or more complex updates), or if you’re experimenting with how it integrates into your team’s workflow.

Once added as a reviewer, Copilot will analyze your proposed changes, leave inline comments, and suggest improvements or fixes directly in the pull request. You can then review its feedback just like you would with a human teammate — applying, modifying, or dismissing its suggestions as needed.

When to use this

  • You want Copilot to review only certain pull requests.

  • You’re experimenting or benchmarking Copilot before enabling auto-review.

  • You need to control timing (e.g., after final commit cleanup).

✏️ Steps

  1. Create a pull request on GitHub with your changes

  2. In the reviewers section, add Copilot

  1. Wait for Copilot’s review (usually takes 1-2 minutes)

    • A summary of the changes.

    • Comments highlighting potential issues.

    • Suggestions for fixes or improvements can often be committed directly with a single click.

In certain circumstances, Copilot will also offer to implement a more complex feature or suggestion that would normally require an additional development pass. For this to work, you’ll need to enable Copilot coding agent.

  1. Review the AI feedback and apply valuable suggestions

Types of feedback

  • Line-specific comments on problematic code

  • Suggested fixes that can be applied with one click

  • General observations about code quality

Troubleshooting

If Copilot doesn’t respond:

  • Verify it’s enabled for the repository.

  • Check if the PR includes supported languages (Copilot performs best with Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, C#, etc.).

  • Try reducing PR size; Copilot may skip reviews that exceed context limits.