Github copilot coding agent does not use defined codespaces

[petrroll]

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Github copilot coding agent (the one you assign to issues) does not use defined devcontainers / codespaces.
It makes sense as it's modeled as workflow enviroments and those don't use them either, but it's rather bad UX as one needs to duplicate setup (needed because within the workflow there's limited internet access) between CI+CD, copilot setup, and codespace / devcontainer.

It's especially jarring as copilot is marketed as another programmer / pair programmer and codespaces are exactle for that.

One potential solution would be to add a worflow action that'd simply run devcontainer setup inline for the copilot workflow enviromnet. And it'd be run automatically if config present.

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[AlekSi]

Yeah, it is really weird that https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/agents/copilot-coding-agent/customizing-the-development-environment-for-copilot-coding-agent does not mention Dev Containers / Codespaces at all.

[dmgoldstein1]

It looks like they’re working on this https://github.blog/changelog/2025-07-30-copilot-coding-agent-custom-setup-steps-are-more-reliable-and-easier-to-debug/

[emiltin]

I agree, it's very frustrating that copilot agent does not use the .devcontainer configured in the repo. Instead you have to use copilot-instructions.md to setup up the environment, but this is very frustrating, as you cannot choose a suitable base docker image to start from. This mean intalling dependencies will often have to be done in a completely different way. And you cannot even easily test this yourself in a codespace.