Shared Copilot Automations run as Copilot and bill the repository owner, not the person who built them

GitHub is rolling out shared Copilot Automations to Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise plans. An automation combines a prompt, a trigger and a set of allowed tools, and Copilot runs it in the cloud. GitHub’s examples are reproducing a bug as soon as an issue is opened, capturing screenshots when a pull request is marked ready, and investigating a production incident when your monitoring tool detects it.

Until now, automations were personal: only you could see or edit them, and they used your identity and your AI credits. That suits something like drafting your standup notes. It does not suit a workflow a whole team depends on, because it is tied to one person’s identity and credits.

Who sees it, who edits it, who pays

Anyone with read access to the repository can see a shared automation, and anyone with write access can edit it. Change history shows how its tools, triggers and prompt have changed over time.

Actions on GitHub are attributed to Copilot, not to a person. AI credits are billed to the organization or user that owns the repository, not to whoever created the automation. Because identity and billing belong to the repository, the automation no longer depends on one person’s account or credits.

In an organization-owned repository, an administrator must first enable the “Allow use of Copilot cloud agent billed to the organization” policy before shared automations can run. GitHub says the rollout is gradual, so you may not see the option yet.

Check the trigger and tools before you share

Any collaborator with write access can change the prompt or add a tool, and the next run bills the repository owner. A trigger such as “every time an issue is opened” on a busy public repository can also run far more often than you expect. Review who has write access, keep the allowed tools to what the task needs, and watch the first few days of credit use.

To create one, choose Shared under Type. GitHub says you cannot change an automation’s type after you create it, so a personal automation you want to share has to be recreated.

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