GitHub adds file context and model switching to Copilot in Slack and Teams

GitHub has updated Copilot in Slack and Microsoft Teams, according to a changelog entry it published on September 25, 2026. GitHub describes the release as a public preview aimed at giving Copilot more context from conversations and a clearer path from chat to GitHub work.

In Slack, users can now use supported files, attachments and message links as context. In Teams, GitHub says Copilot can work with inline images, forwarded-message context, and channel and thread history. GitHub also says Copilot checks for similar issues before creating a new one, includes direct links to the resulting work, and keeps a link back to the conversation where the request began.

On control, GitHub says users can switch models for the next message and keep that choice for the rest of the conversation. In Slack, users can also set default owners and repositories.

The company also lists reliability fixes. For long-running tasks, it cites clearer implementation-plan status and more predictable reconnection after a conversation goes idle. In Teams, it says Copilot now retains channel-thread history more reliably, avoids duplicate answers and works more consistently with user-owned repositories and large channels. In Slack, it says it fixed repository picker and code-channel issues and made repository switching safer, so superseded sessions cannot keep acting in the old repository.

Access is limited. GitHub says the preview is available to organizations on Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise plans, that usage counts against existing Copilot entitlements, and that it can be managed with existing Copilot cloud agent budgets. It adds that some capabilities are rolling out gradually and may not yet be available in every workspace. Setup requires an administrator to enable the Copilot cloud agent policy for Slack, or the cloud agent and cloud sandboxes for Teams.

What is confirmed and what is not: every detail above comes from GitHub's own changelog. We found no independent report of this specific update, so the descriptions of what the features do, and how reliably they work, are GitHub's claims and have not been tested. This is a single-source item.

The update matters mainly for teams that already use Copilot's cloud agent and want it to draw on material shared in chat rather than on text typed into a prompt. The model choice and default-repository settings, if they work as described, could reduce repeated setup in shared channels. Teams with strict access rules should check the rollout caveat and the admin prerequisites before relying on any of it.

Revised 16 October 2026: Guth re-read the original sources and rewrote this article. The earlier version remains available as revision 1.