Customizing Branch Naming Convention in GitHub Copilot Agent

[ratheeshkannan]

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I'm currently using the GitHub Copilot agent to automate issue handling. When I assign an issue to Copilot, it automatically creates a branch and opens a pull request. However, I've noticed that the branch name always starts with the prefix copilot/, such as copilot/issue-123.

In our deployment pipeline, branch names containing slashes (/) are not supported, which causes deployment failures. Our process requires branch names to use hyphens (-) instead of slashes—for example, copilot-issue-123.

Is there a way to configure the Copilot agent to use a different branch naming convention, specifically replacing / with -? If not, I’d love to see support for customizable branch prefixes or naming templates in a future update.

Thanks in advance!

[devenkumar1]

Here's a concise and clear way to address your question about customizing the branch naming convention in GitHub Copilot Agent:

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Question: Customizing Branch Naming in GitHub Copilot Agent

Body:
I'm currently using the GitHub Copilot agent to automate issue handling. When I assign an issue to Copilot, it automatically creates a branch and opens a pull request. However, I've noticed that the branch name always starts with the prefix copilot/, such as copilot/issue-123.

In our deployment pipeline, branch names containing slashes (/) are not supported, which causes deployment failures. Our process requires branch names to use hyphens (-) instead of slashes—for example, copilot-issue-123.

Is there a way to configure the Copilot agent to use a different branch naming convention, specifically replacing / with -? If not, I'd love to see support for customizable branch prefixes or naming templates in a future update.

Thanks in advance!

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Suggested Answer:

At this time, GitHub Copilot Agent automatically generates branch names with a copilot/ prefix, and there is currently no built-in option to customize the branch name format directly (such as replacing slashes with hyphens).

However, this is a great suggestion for a future enhancement, and I recommend submitting a feature request to GitHub to enable customizable branch naming conventions for the Copilot Agent. This would allow teams to configure naming templates that align with their deployment pipeline requirements.

In the meantime, a workaround could be to create a custom script in your workflow to rename the branch after it is created by Copilot. For example, you could use a GitHub Actions workflow to rename the branch by replacing / with - after the branch is created.

Let me know if you'd like assistance setting up such a workaround!

[MisinformedDNA]

Where do we file feature requests for GitHub? I can't find it.

[jdde]

Im also really interested in the worksround, tried to force copilot to use a different branch with the setup action, without success, did anybody impelmented that successfully?

[yvele]

Same problem here I have specific branch name patterns and patterns are used within AWS OIDC in order to get deployment permissions.
Would be awesome to have fully customisable PR branch name pattern for copilot (custom prefix, custom separator, etc).

[hitX]

There’s no way to change this right now. The Copilot agent always creates branches with the copilot/ prefix and it’s not configurable, so you can’t swap the / for a - or define your own naming format.

If your pipeline can’t handle slashes, the only workaround at the moment is to rename the branch after Copilot creates it, or update the pipeline to allow / if that’s an option.

I agree though, this would be a great improvement. Being able to customize the branch prefix or use a naming template would make Copilot fit a lot better into existing workflows. Definitely worth raising as a feature request if you haven’t already.

[brandonfl]

Big +1 as the CI pipeline automatically generates sub-domain deployment with the name of the PR as the sub-domain for testing purposes. It would be great to have the possibility to select between - and / like the dependabot config.

[hpierre74]

Same here, we need to customize branch names 🙏
Except our issue is not with "/" in the branch name, our process do not allow merging a branch that won't follow a pattern:
<TYPE>/<JIRA-ID>/<DESCRIPTION> where type follows conventional-branch-name.

And yes, absolutely guys, the requirement to provide a JIRA ticket for everything is a huge pain in the ass already

[jdde]

do you have an working example how you switch the branch after creation, I tried it via the preparation action, without success

[mpopv]

This would at least be partially solved by allowing the model that names the branch to see the copilot-instructions. We can allowlist the copilot/ prefix in our workflow, and add instructions on how to format the rest of the branch name in the custom instructions, but because those instructions are ignored during the branch name run (violating the expectation that they are shown to all models/agents), it's impossible to guide branch naming at all, outside bizarre kludges like prompt injection via code comment.

[CodeWIthAbdullah-007]

Currently, GitHub Copilot Agent does not provide a way to customize the branch naming convention—it automatically uses the copilot/ prefix when creating branches. There isn’t an option to replace / with - or to set custom naming templates at this time.

As a workaround, you could:

Manually rename the branch after creation (though this may affect the linked PR).

Use scripts in your deployment pipeline to convert branch names before deploying.

It’s a good idea to submit feedback or a feature request for customizable branch prefixes or naming templates, as this would allow pipelines with stricter naming rules to work seamlessly.

[ZeeCoder]

In case it's useful for anyone: for us, having the copilot/ prefix is fine.
We do need at least a ticket number in the branch name, however.

So copilot/ticket-123-short-summary-of-the-task is ok.

I found the following template worked well:

## Guidelines (Must Follow)

- *MAKE SURE* the PR's branch is named **ticket-123-short-summary-of-the-task**
- *MAKE SURE* (...)
- (...) a small limited set of must-follow rules

## Task
(...)

☝️ This seems to work fairly well, assuming the must follow list is not overloaded.
The agent usually ends up doing copilot/ticket-123-short-summary-of-the-task, or might reinterpret the branch name to copilot/ticket-123-agent-generated-branch-name

It is annoying though, and I'd much prefer to be able to select the branch name somewhere in the UI, even if it the copilot/ prefix is fixed.

[weilinzung]

@ZeeCoder, we tried to do what you do in the custom agent markdown file, but it is still not working.

[weilinzung]

Same issue for PR title, we added the pr branch and title name convention for the custom agent, but it is all ignored.

As well, we want the PR NOT to start with "draft", we want it to start as ready to review instead.

Maybe it is too late to read those prompts when the coding agent needs to have the working branch start to work first.

[shivrajcodez]

As far as I know, the Copilot agent’s branch naming (copilot/issue-...) isn’t currently configurable. The prefix and slash format appear to be fixed by the service.

If your pipeline cannot accept / in branch names, the practical workaround is to add a small step in your workflow that renames the branch after creation (or mirrors it to a copilot-issue-... branch before deployment).

It would definitely be useful if GitHub exposed configurable branch naming templates for Copilot agents, since many CI/CD systems enforce specific branch patterns.

[bmcnally-uw]

I'd like this feature too, although not for CI/CD but just because I want the branches to be more sensibly named. I tried adding explicit branch rename instructions to .github/copilot-instructions.md to no avail.

[bmcnally-uw]

No, it doesn't work. Adding instructions to .github/copilot-instructions.md gets ignored.

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