Copilot review

kanbot's own reviewers run on your machine. You can add GitHub Copilot code review as a third reviewer. It runs on GitHub, and its comments are fixed by kanbot's fixer like any other finding.

It's off by default, because it costs money: Copilot code review needs a paid Copilot plan, and each review uses credits.

Why add it

• A second opinion. A different model, with different blind spots.
• Reviews without your laptop. GitHub requests the review as soon as a PR opens, whether or not the daemon is running. The daemon picks up the comments when it's back.
• The same rules. Copilot is pointed at the skills your kanbot reviewers already use.

Turn it on

1. In .kanbot/config.yml:

   review:
     copilot: true

2. Run kanbot board create. With a board already set, it only adds what's missing, here a branch ruleset named kanbot: Copilot review. The ruleset asks Copilot to review every PR to the default branch.

3. Run kanbot sync. It writes .github/copilot-instructions.md, which tells Copilot to use the review-findings rubric, your review capability if mapped, AGENTS.md, project-conventions and project-memory.

4. Commit, push, and restart the daemon.

5. Run kanbot doctor to check the ruleset and the instructions file.

To turn it off, set copilot: false, run kanbot sync (it removes the instructions file) and delete the ruleset in the repo's settings.

Where it fits in Review

After both kanbot review passes, the daemon checks Copilot:

1. Copilot left comments. The fixer answers every unresolved Copilot thread: it fixes real problems and replies with a reason where Copilot is wrong. Copilot's comments rank like agent findings, so they never override the plan or your decisions.
2. No Copilot review yet. The daemon waits, up to copilotWaitMinutes (15) after the PR opened.
3. Still nothing after the wait. The PR gets agent-reviewed without it. Copilot may be out of credits or switched off.

Your own comments still come first, as always.

Options

Option	Default	What it does
review.copilot	false	Wait for Copilot and fix its comments.
review.copilotOnPush	false	Review again after every push. The fixer pushes often, so this costs more.
review.copilotWaitMinutes	15	How long to wait for the first review.

Rerun kanbot board create after changing copilotOnPush, so the ruleset matches.

Good to know

• Copilot reviews every PR the ruleset covers, including PRs you open yourself. kanbot only acts on Copilot comments on its own PRs and on PRs labeled kanbot-review.
• Copilot reads AGENTS.md and .github/copilot-instructions.md from the PR branch. Whether it also reads .agents/skills/ directly isn't documented, which is why the instructions file points at the skills by path.
• Copilot's review is a comment, never an approval. You still merge.