{"slug": "github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage", "title": "GitHub Copilot app for Beginners: Automate Dependabot pull request triage", "summary": "GitHub has introduced automations in its GitHub Copilot app that allow developers to triage Dependabot pull requests automatically, grouping them by risk, verifying CI status, and delivering a summary on a daily schedule. The feature, described in a GitHub blog post, lets users create automations with natural language prompts and run them in the cloud or locally, with results that can be continued in a Copilot session.", "body_md": "**Ready to automate your next recurring task?** [Create your first automation in the GitHub Copilot app >](https://github.com/features/ai/github-app)\n\n# GitHub Copilot app for Beginners: Automate Dependabot pull request triage\n\nManaging library updates can be tedious at times. Learn how the GitHub Copilot app can handle this type of repetitive task.\n\nI might be biased, but I think Dependabot is pretty amazing. It helps keep my projects up to date, ensuring I’m always using secure libraries. But because there’re frequently new vulnerabilities, there’re frequently new pull requests from Dependabot.\n\nSometimes it’s a minor version bump. Sometimes it’s a major version upgrade. Sometimes everything will work just fine. And sometimes… well, every single developer has been caught by a breaking change.\n\nHow can we best triage these pull requests? The work isn’t particularly difficult per se, but it certainly is repetitive.\n\nIt’s the perfect task to offload to Copilot! With [GitHub Copilot app automations](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/cloud-agent/about-automations), you can hand off that first round of review. Instead of manually inspecting every Dependabot pull request, you can create an automation that reviews open pull requests, groups them by risk, verifies CI status, and delivers a summary before your day begins.\n\nFollow the steps below to build a daily Dependabot triage automation.\n\n## Step 1: Create a new automation\n\nFrom the GitHub Copilot app, [create a new automation](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/github-copilot-app/using-automations).\n\nYou’ll configure two things first:\n\n**Name:** Give the automation a descriptive name, such as**Daily Dependabot Triage**.** Trigger:**Decide when it should run.\n\nAvailable trigger options include:\n\n- Manual\n- Hourly\n- Daily\n- Weekly\n- When an issue is created\n\nFor recurring maintenance tasks like [Dependabot reviews](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/tutorials/secure-your-dependencies/dependabot-quickstart), a daily schedule is often a good choice. For example, you might schedule it to run before your workday begins so the results are waiting when you log in.\n\nYou can also choose whether the automation runs in the cloud or on your local machine.\n\n## Step 2: Describe the task in natural language\n\nNext, tell Copilot what you want it to do.\n\nFor example:\n\n```\nReview the open Dependabot pull requests, group them by risk, identify the safe patch and minor version updates, verify that CI is passing for each pull request, and provide a short summary of the recommended next steps.\n```\n\nBecause the prompt uses natural language, you can customize it to match your team’s workflow.\n\n## Step 3: Select the repository\n\nChoose the repository or project the automation should analyze.\n\nOnce you’ve selected the repository, create the automation.\n\nIf you want to test it immediately instead of waiting for the scheduled run, choose **Create and Run**.\n\n## Step 4: Review the results\n\nWhen the automation finishes, Copilot returns a summary instead of a list of individual pull requests.\n\nFor example, it might:\n\n- Group safe patch updates together\n- Separate minor and major version upgrades\n- Identify which pull requests have passing CI\n- Highlight dependencies that require additional investigation\n\nRather than interrupting your morning with dozens of small decisions, you can quickly identify which updates are ready to merge and which deserve closer attention.\n\n## Step 5: Continue the work in a Copilot session\n\nIf one of the updates requires additional work, you can continue directly from the automation results.\n\nFor example, if the summary identifies a major framework upgrade, you can start a new Copilot session from the results and ask Copilot to help complete the migration.\n\nBecause the session starts with the automation’s context, you don’t have to gather the information again.\n\n## Review previous automation runs\n\nEvery automation run is saved, making it easy to see:\n\n- When it ran\n- What actions it performed\n- What results it produced\n\nHaving a history of each run makes automations transparent. You can always review what happened instead of treating them as a black box.\n\n## Turn repetitive work into background work\n\nDependabot triage is a good example of the kind of recurring task that’s well suited for automation. You describe the workflow once, choose when it should run, and let Copilot perform the repetitive steps automatically.\n\nIf you’re just getting started with automations, begin with a task you already perform on autopilot. Let Copilot handle the routine work so you can spend your time on the decisions that require your expertise.\n\n## Tags:\n\n## Written by\n\n## Related posts\n\n###\n[\nHow to evaluate LLMs before production ](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/llms/how-to-evaluate-llms-before-production/)\n\nThese are the lessons we learned evaluating LLMs for real-world secret scanning.\n\n###\n[\nGitHub Copilot app for Beginners: Managing your work ](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-managing-your-work/)\n\nIf you’re juggling multiple Copilot sessions, use the My work pane to track what’s in flight, what’s done, and what’s next.\n\n###\n[\nHow canvases make agentic workflows visible, steerable, and cost-efficient ](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/how-canvases-make-agentic-workflows-visible-steerable-and-cost-efficient/)\n\nChat is great for intent, but agent work gets lost in the scroll. Here is how I use canvases with my agentic workflows—and why your workflow also deserves a canvas.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage", "canonical_source": "https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage/", "published_at": "2026-08-26 20:12:53+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-26 20:22:51.653580+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "developer-tools", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["GitHub", "GitHub Copilot", "Dependabot"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/github-copilot-app-for-beginners-automate-dependabot-pull-request-triage.jsonld"}}