GitHub introduced pull-request approvals from Copilot code review in public preview on September 1. Every Copilot review now includes an approval assessment, while administrators can separately authorize Copilot to submit an approving review rather than only leave comments.
The capability is off by default and can be governed at enterprise, organization and repository level. Repository administrators can also decide whether Copilot approvals count toward required-approval rules and can restrict that behavior by changed-file paths. New commits dismiss an existing Copilot approval, after which a new review can be requested.
GitHub’s current documentation confirms the configurable approval path but also keeps the feature explicitly in public preview. AiToolMap therefore treats this as an optional governance capability, not as evidence that Copilot automatically approves pull requests or that organizations should replace human review.
For AiToolMap, this is a material GitHub Copilot update because code review can now participate directly in a repository’s merge-control workflow when administrators opt in. That expands Copilot from advisory review toward a governed approval role and makes configuration, branch protection and human oversight more consequential.