GitHub Copilot weekly releases — August 31

Release

This week, GitHub Copilot expands model choice and content protections, while VS Code adds new ways to manage agent sessions and get pull requests merge-ready.

GitHub Copilot, general

• Claude Fable 5.1 is available to Copilot Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise users.
• Gemini 3.8 Flash is rolling out to Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise users.

For more information, see [our list of all supported models](https://docs.github.com/copilot/reference/ai-models/supported-models).

### [GitHub Copilot app and Copilot CLI](#github-copilot-app-and-copilot-cli)

• Copilot app and CLI now honor content exclusions, keeping sensitive code out of context across agentic workflows.

GitHub Copilot in JetBrains

The GitHub Copilot harness is now generally available in Copilot for JetBrains, providing faster feature delivery and better code quality.

For more information, see [our previous changelog about the release](https://github.blog/changelog/2026-08-24-copilot-harness-generally-available-in-copilot-for-jetbrains).

### [VS Code 1.136 release updates](#vs-code-1-136-release-updates)

• Agent Merge is now in public preview and gets your pull request ready to merge by resolving review feedback, failed checks, and merge conflicts.
• Multi-root workspaces are now experimental and bring Copilot and Claude agent sessions to every folder in your workspace.
• Chat backgrounds are now experimental and let you personalize the Agents window with built-in patterns or your own images.
• Chat sessions organize related chats into a hierarchy and show which ones need your attention.

Explore everything that’s new in the full release notes.