copilot-sdk

Copilot SDK

Welcome to the GitHub Copilot SDK docs. Whether you’re building your first Copilot-powered app or deploying to production, you’ll find what you need here.

Where to start

I want to…	Go to
Build my first app	Getting Started—end-to-end tutorial with streaming & custom tools
Set up for production	Setup Guides—architecture, deployment patterns, scaling
Configure authentication	Authentication—GitHub OAuth, server-to-server authentication, environment variables, BYOK
Add features to my app	Features—hooks, custom agents, MCP, skills, and more
Debug an issue	Troubleshooting—common problems and solutions

Documentation map

Getting Started

Step-by-step tutorial that takes you from zero to a working Copilot app with streaming responses and custom tools.

Setup

How to configure and deploy the SDK for your use case.

• Default Setup (Bundled CLI): the SDK includes the CLI automatically
• Local CLI: use your own CLI binary or running instance
• Backend Services: server-side with headless CLI over TCP
• GitHub OAuth: implement the OAuth flow
• Azure Managed Identity: BYOK with Microsoft Foundry
• Scaling & Multi-Tenancy: horizontal scaling, isolation patterns
• Multi-Tenancy & Server Deployments: mode: “empty”, session isolation, integration IDs, sessionFs

Authentication

Configuring how users and services authenticate with Copilot.

• Authentication Overview: methods, priority order, and examples
• Server-to-server authentication: use GitHub Actions or GitHub App installation tokens for organization-attributed automation
• Bring Your Own Key (BYOK): use your own API keys from OpenAI, Azure, Anthropic, and more

Features

Guides for building with the SDK’s capabilities.

• Hooks: intercept and customize session behavior
• Custom Agents: define specialized sub-agents
• MCP Servers: integrate Model Context Protocol servers
• Skills: load reusable prompt modules
• Plugin Directories: bundle skills, hooks, MCP servers, and agents as a single loadable plugin
• Session limits: set an AI Credits budget for a session
• Image Input: send images as attachments
• Streaming Events: real-time event reference
• Steering & Queueing: message delivery modes
• Session Persistence: resume sessions across restarts
• Remote Sessions: share sessions to GitHub web and mobile via Mission Control
• Cloud Sessions: run sessions on GitHub-hosted compute with the cloud: option
• Fleet Mode: dispatch parallel sub-agents for parallelizable work

Hooks Reference

Detailed API reference for each session hook.

• Pre-Tool Use: approve, deny, or modify tool calls
• Post-Tool Use: transform tool results
• User Prompt Submitted: modify or filter user messages
• Session Lifecycle: session start and end
• Error Handling: custom error handling

Troubleshooting

• Debugging Guide: common issues and solutions
• MCP Debugging: MCP-specific troubleshooting
• Compatibility: SDK vs CLI feature matrix

Observability

• OpenTelemetry Instrumentation: built-in TelemetryConfig and trace context propagation

Integrations

Guides for using the SDK with other platforms and frameworks.

• Microsoft Agent Framework: MAF multi-agent workflows