GitHub Copilot: new integration with JetBrains Air, Agent Merge feature, and unified settings dashboard
GitHub has expanded the GitHub Copilot product with integration with JetBrains Air, an Agent Merge feature for automatically merging pull requests, and a unified dashboard for MCP servers and plugins. This follows the previously announced public preview of the integration into Xcode 27.3 beta.
As part of a weekly update to the GitHub Copilot product (release from 2 November 2026), GitHub announced a set of new features. Among the key novelties is Copilot's integration into JetBrains Air, where you can monitor multiple agentic sessions and run tasks locally or in the cloud via Air Teams using your existing Copilot subscription. In addition, the Agent Merge feature was added, which allows you to set up automatic merging of a pull request once the required checks are satisfied, directly from the pull request interface. Settings management has been simplified thanks to a unified dashboard at /settings, which now serves plugins, MCP servers, and search across all settings.
Other improvements relate to managing long conversations – users can compact a conversation or check what is taking up the available context space, directly from the context-overload error message. In VS Code, an experimental chat view has been added with the ability to hide or expand reasoning steps and tool calls, remote app previews, and interactive canvases in the Agents window (in preview phase), as well as support for cron expressions and custom workspace agents for local automations.
Part of the update is also the previously announced integration of GitHub Copilot into the built-in coding assistant in Xcode, which has entered public preview with Xcode 27.3 beta. According to GitHub, a Mac with macOS Tahoe 26.6 or newer is required to use it, and setup is done in Xcode > Settings > Intelligence. The existing GitHub Copilot for Xcode extension remains available as a separate alternative, and according to the company, all GitHub Copilot plans are supported.
Why it matters
Integration into JetBrains Air and Xcode extends the usability of GitHub Copilot beyond VS Code, so developers in these environments don't need to switch between tools. The Agent Merge feature and the unified dashboard for MCP servers and plugins reduce the administrative burden of managing pull requests and settings, which can shorten the time needed for routine tasks in development teams.
What was added since the original report
Verified updates
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Specific release date: 2026-11-02; Agent Merge feature for managing pull requests directly from the IDE; Unified /settings dashboard for managing MCP servers and plugins; Integration also into JetBrains Air, not just Xcode; Improved management of long conversations, including compaction and a view of context overload
- Specific release date: 2026-11-02
- Agent Merge feature for managing pull requests directly from the IDE
- Unified /settings dashboard for managing MCP servers and plugins
- Integration also into JetBrains Air, not just Xcode
- Improved management of long conversations, including compaction and a view of context overload
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Developers using JetBrains IDEs or Xcode can now work with GitHub Copilot directly in their native environment, without switching tools, and thanks to conversation compaction and remote app previews directly in VS Code, they can manage longer agentic sessions more efficiently.
For a business
Companies using GitHub Copilot gain tools for automating pull request management (Agent Merge), centralized management of MCP servers and plugins via a single dashboard, and schedulable local automations using cron expressions – this can speed up the development process and simplify administration across teams.
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Event sources
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