Copilot code review in Azure DevOps: when it reviews, and why it did not
GitHub Copilot can review pull requests in Azure Repos: it joins as a reviewer named GitHub Copilot and leaves comments on the changed lines. It went into technical preview on June 2, 2026 and public preview on August 26, 2026; Microsoft's page calls it a limited preview that reaches organizations in stages. It is for Azure DevOps Services only: Microsoft's pages list no Azure DevOps Server version. This page sums up Microsoft's documentation (updated October 19, 2026) and the public preview announcement; we have not run it ourselves.
Turning it on
- Organization: a Project Collection Administrator turns on Allow repositories in this organization to use Copilot code review (Organization settings > Repos > Repositories). Nothing below works without it. Enable all there turns it on for every project and repository.
- Project (optional): a Project Administrator, Project settings > Repos > Repositories, Enable Copilot code review for this project.
- Repository: on the repository's Settings tab, Enable Copilot code review for pull requests in this repository.
- You: Copilot code review is a preview feature, so each user turns it on in their Preview features, unless the administrator enabled the preview for everyone.
When it is on, GitHub Copilot appears in the Reviewers list of a pull request with a Request button. Billing goes to the Azure subscription linked to the organization, as its own meter in Azure Cost Management; tokens are counted in GitHub AI credits of $0.01, and credits from a GitHub Copilot plan do not count. Charges show up 48 hours after a review.
Effort level (public preview, from the Sprint 280 update, October 2026): you choose how much time Copilot spends on a review, and a Project Administrator can set the default to Lite or Balanced for a project, or a repository can have its own. Microsoft says a lower level can reduce the cost of pull requests that do not need an in-depth review.
Audit log (from the Sprint 281 update of October 27, 2026, which Microsoft rolls out over two to three weeks): Organization settings › Auditing records changes to Copilot code review: turning it on or off for the organization, a project or a repository, the agent pool, the custom instructions, the default effort level, and the branch policies for automatic reviews.
Why Copilot did not review the pull request
- Nobody asked. By default Copilot reviews only when someone selects Request. Automatic reviews need the branch policy Automatically request Copilot code review on each target branch (Repos > Branches > Branch policies); enabling the feature does not turn it on.
- New commits. Copilot does not review again after a push: select Request again. Microsoft lists one completed review per merge commit, so asking again without a new commit may not start another.
- The pull request is not eligible. It has to be Active, without merge conflicts (merge status Merge Succeeded), in a repository of 10 GB or less, with 100 changed files or fewer and 100 changes or fewer.
- Another review is running. One review at a time per pull request, two per user and five per organization.
- The agent pool. Reviews run as jobs in an Azure Pipelines agent pool, by default the organization's default pool. Self-hosted agents are not supported. For Managed DevOps Pools the two sources differ: the announcement says the organization can set one for all reviews, the documentation says they are not supported yet.
- The switches above: if GitHub Copilot is not in the Reviewers list at all, one of the four is off for this repository or for you.
When a review fails, its log is a job of that pool: Organization settings > Agent pools, the pool (Azure Pipelines by default), the failed job, and its raw log in JSON. A review in progress can be cancelled next to GitHub Copilot in the Reviewers list; the comments it already left stay.
What Copilot leaves
- Comments on the lines they are about, like a person's. You can reply, resolve or hide them; Copilot does not read the replies.
- Where it can, a comment includes a suggested change that you apply with one click.
- A Comment review only: it never approves or asks for changes, so it does not satisfy a required-reviewer policy, and it does not block completing.
A suggested change replaces the lines the comment is on. On the pull request page the author chooses Apply changes, which stages it, and then Commit all changes; Undo change takes a staged one back (Microsoft's review documentation). People write suggested changes with the light bulb under the comment box, which puts them in a fenced ```suggestion block; there is no light bulb on the original (left) side of a side-by-side diff.
From the same Sprint 281 update, when you apply and commit Copilot’s suggested changes, you can resolve the related Copilot comments with them instead of one by one.
Reading the comments in IntelliJ IDEA and Rider
Azure DevOps Pull Requests, a plugin by Lesstep for JetBrains IDEs 2024.1 or later and Android Studio, shows a pull request's comment threads in an IDE tool window and at their lines in the diff, whoever wrote them, on Azure DevOps Services and on Azure DevOps Server. From version 1.0.51, a ```suggestion block in a comment on lines says above it which lines it replaces, or that it deletes them when it is empty, and that it is applied on the pull request page; the plugin itself does not apply it. The plugin has no AI features of its own. The review inbox and the branch policies are free; voting, commenting, completing and creating are Pro, with a 30-day trial.
Get it on JetBrains Marketplace
Azure DevOps is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; GitHub and GitHub Copilot are trademarks of GitHub, Inc.; IntelliJ IDEA and Rider are trademarks of JetBrains s.r.o. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, GitHub or JetBrains.
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