This repository contains an Issue Template and a GitHub Actions workflow that automates the assignment of GitHub Copilot licenses to users. The workflow is triggered when an issue is labeled with copilot-request
.
This template works for GitHub Copilot for Business and GitHub Copilot Enterprise.
The main goal of this repository is to automate the process of assigning GitHub Copilot licenses. Instead of manually assigning licenses, the organization can leverage this solution to simply let the users open an issue using the provided issue template, and the workflow will automatically assign a license to them, when the user opens the issue they are committing to use the GitHub Copilot license.
- Click on Use this template to create a new repository in your GitHub organization where you want to automate the GitHub Copilot license assignment.
- Create a new label in that new repository named
copilot-request
. - The GitHub Enterprise Owner or GitHub Organization Owner needs to enable GitHub Copilot for the organization where the repository is located. For more details, refer to the official documentation.
- In the GitHub Organization, create a new GitHub App by going to
Settings
, thenDeveloper settings
and thenGitHub Apps
, click onNew GitHub App
and provide theName
,Homepage URL
(could be any URL) and the following permissions:repository:metadata:ready-only
organization:GitHub Copilot Business:read and write
- In the App Settings click on
Install App
in the left menu and select the repository that you created before. - Store the GitHub App ID in the repository secrets with the name
APPLICATION_ID
. - In the
App Settings
, scroll down to thePrivate keys
section and click onGenerate a private key
for the GitHub App and store the plain text of the .pem file in the repository secrets with the nameAPPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY
.
Note: The workflow use the
GITHUB_TOKEN
to comment and close the issue, this token is automatically created by GitHub and is available to use in the workflow, however theGITHUB_TOKEN
needs to haveRead and write permissions
you can check this in the organization settings, thenActions
, In theWorkflow permissions
ofGeneral
. Alternatively, you can use the GitHub App that you just created to comment and close the issue but you will need to enable theIssue
permissions in theApp settings
with theRead and write
access level and change the line 50 and 78 of the workflow to use the GitHub App tokenGITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.get_workflow_token.outputs.token }}
instead of theGITHUB_TOKEN
.
Note: At this point GitHub Copilot should be enabled in the organization, the label
copilot-request
should be created and the GitHub App configured with the secretsAPPLICATION_ID
andAPPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY
already stored in the repository.
- Users can now open a new issue in this repository using the issue template 'Request GitHub Copilot License'.
- The workflow will be triggered automatically and if successful, a GitHub Copilot license will be assigned to the user's account.
One of the easiest way to add an approval process to the GitHub Copilot license assignment is by following the following steps:
- Create a new environment in the repository. Go to
Settings
, thenEnvironments
and click onNew environment
. Provide a name to the environment, for example,Copilot
orcopilot-request-approval
. - In the environment settings, check the
Required reviewers
option and add the users that will be able to approve the requests. (You can add up to 6 users). - In the workflow file assign_github_copilot_license.yml, add
environment: <name of your environment>
, in the job that assigns the GitHub Copilot (line 8), for example:
6. jobs:
7. assign_github_copilot_license:
8. environment: Copilot
Now, when a user opens an issue with the label copilot-request
, the workflow will wait for the approval of the users added to the environment before assigning the GitHub Copilot license.
The repository contains the following files:
The issue template Request GitHub Copilot License is provided to standardize the license request process. The template uses the label copilot-request
to trigger the workflow that assigns GitHub Copilot licenses, this label needs to be created in the repository before opening an issue. The template contains a notice to the user about the commitment they're making by requesting the GitHub Copilot license, informing the user about what will happen once their license request is fulfilled, a motivational message for the user, and a thank you note to the user.
The workflow assign_github_copilot_license.yml is triggered when an issue is labeled with copilot-request
. The workflow uses the GitHub API through octokit to assign the GitHub Copilot license to the user who opened the issue. A token is generated using Peter Murray's Action. Upon successful execution, the workflow comments on the issue and closes it. In case of failure, it comments on the issue to notify about the failure and leaves the issue open. The workflow uses the GITHUB_TOKEN to comment and close the issue opened by the user. The execution of the workflow takes less than 1 minute.