GitHub finally put the Copilot button where you can find it instead of hiding it behind 5 menu clicks like some kind of easter egg nobody wanted. The new agents panel sits right in your sidebar instead of buried in nested menus where developers gave up looking for it.
GitHub's UI was shit for finding Copilot. You'd click through five different menus to ask the AI a simple question, then forget what you wanted to ask. The new Agents panel puts it right there where you can actually find it.
GitHub Copilot Button Location: The new agents panel puts Copilot access directly in the sidebar instead of buried in GitHub's confusing menu system - finally accessible from any page without navigation hell.
What This Actually Does for Developers
Tell it to fix a bug and it writes code that compiles but breaks everything else. Opens PRs with the confidence of someone who's never seen production code.
GitHub claims this makes developers 30% faster. Maybe for junior devs doing basic CRUD stuff. For anything that requires actual thinking, you spend more time fixing its mistakes than just writing the code yourself.
It's decent at boilerplate generation and obvious bug fixes. Terrible at business logic or anything that requires context about your specific app. Still just fancy autocomplete.
Before this you'd be reviewing a PR, spot something wrong, navigate through GitHub's shitty menu system to find Copilot, then forget what you were trying to fix.
Now there's a button right there. Click it, tell it what's broken, get back mediocre suggestions instantly. Saves you from having 47 browser tabs open just to ask an AI a simple question.
Still switches context constantly but at least the AI is easier to reach when you need it.
Still Breaks Everything for Complex Stuff
Copilot suggested using jQuery in our React app last week. Also tried to use some Express middleware that hasn't worked since Node 14. The PR looked fine until you tried to run it and got dependency conflicts everywhere.
Basically useless for anything that requires understanding your existing codebase or business requirements. Great at generating code that compiles, terrible at generating code that actually works in your specific context.
Other Tools Are Better
Cursor actually understands your codebase instead of just generating random code. JetBrains AI runs locally so it doesn't send your company secrets to Microsoft. Amazon's tool works better if you're already stuck in AWS hell.
GitHub's main advantage is that your code is already there. Convenient to have everything in one place, but that won't matter if the AI keeps being mediocre.
Costs Too Much
Agents panel only works with Business ($19/month) or Enterprise ($39/month) plans. For our 10-person team that's like $200-400/month for AI that's wrong half the time.
Some teams claim big productivity gains. Others see no improvement because their work is too specialized for generic AI to help. You're basically paying for expensive autocomplete that occasionally works.
Worth Using If You Already Have It
If you're already paying for Copilot Business, the agents panel makes it slightly less annoying to use. If you're on the free plan, this doesn't make it worth upgrading.
GitHub's AI isn't getting better fast enough to compete with dedicated tools. The convenience of having everything in one place is nice, but not worth paying extra for mediocre AI.
Basically: minor UX improvement for an already overpriced tool.