Getting Started with the GitHub Copilot App: Automating Dependabot Pull Request Triage

Dependabot helps with library security updates for projects, but frequent vulnerability discoveries lead to a backlog of pull requests that require manual handling. This repetitive first-pass review work can be delegated to the automation features of the GitHub Copilot app.

To set up automation, first select a Daily run as the trigger, and enter a natural language prompt instructing it to 'group open Dependabot PRs by risk level and summarize them with CI status checks.' Once you specify the target repositories, Copilot will perform the task at the scheduled time.

As a result, Copilot provides a summary report that distinguishes between patch updates, minor/major version upgrades, and CI pass/fail status, rather than just a list of individual PRs. This allows developers to quickly see which updates are ready to merge and which require further investigation as soon as they start work.

If additional work is needed on specific updates, you can start a Copilot session directly from the automation results, allowing you to continue work while maintaining the previous context. All execution logs are saved for transparent review, enabling you to offload repetitive maintenance tasks to the background and focus on core development work.