I encountered something interesting trying to use the old GitHub CLI + Copilot extension in my workflow yml file. Not knowing it deprecated in late 2025, I tried to use it and got the following error.
unknown command "copilot" for "gh"
Usage: gh <command> <subcommand> [flags]After doing some research, I discovered that it was depreciated and I should use GitHub Copilot CLI. (https://github.com/features/copilot/cli)
The correct way to call Copilot from my workflow yml file is the following.
# Call Copilot CLI
response=$(copilot -p "$copilot_prompt" --allow-tool shell 2>&1 || echo '{"should_notify":true,"title":"Copilot CLI Error","body":"Failed to get response from Copilot CLI"}')Here is an explanation of the command above.
copilot: The base command for the GitHub Copilot CLI-p: A flag used to provide a prompt directly from the cmd line instead of entering an interactive session.--allow-tool shell: Grants Copilot permission to use the shell tool to execute commands, else you may be prompted for approval
Couple extra items I learned when trying to use GitHub Copilot CLI:
- Install CLI from your workflow file with this command
- npm install -g @github/copilot (Recommended)
- curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install (I didn’t test this)
- You need an active paid GitHub Copilot subscription
DevOps Unleashed 