OPENING / 01THE HUMAN + AGENT FUTURE

A NEW WAY TO BUILD TOGETHER

The repository
is the room.

Parallel development with agents needs a shared place to propose work, show evidence, and make decisions.

Julia MuiruriDeveloper Experiences (DX) at GitHub

01 / INTENTISSUE

02 / WORKAGENT

03 / EVIDENCEPR

04 / DECISIONHUMAN

THE LOOP
STAYS VISIBLE

JULIA MUIRURI / GITHUB01 — 20

THE PRESSURE / 022024 → 2025 / MONTHLY AVERAGES

GITHUB OCTOVERSE 2025

More work reaches
the review surface.

Across three different measures, the monthly average rose year over year.

MONTHLY AVERAGE 2024 2025

PRs mergedMILLIONS / MONTH

Issues closedMILLIONS / MONTH

Code pushesMILLIONS / MONTH

GitHub Octoverse monthly averages, 2024 compared with 2025, in millions per month
Metric	2024	2025
Pull requests merged	35 million per month	43.2 million per month
Issues closed	approximately 3.4 million per month	4.25 million per month
Code pushes	65 million per month	82.19 million per month

DATA: GITHUB OCTOVERSE 2025 ↗02 — 20

THE PRESSURE / 032026 / MONTHLY SCALE

The scale of
2026.

MONTHLY COMMITS / BILLIONS

APR 20261.4B

AUG 20262.9B

The PR and repository estimates are visual readings near the August 2026 endpoints of GitHub's published charts.

GitHub-reported monthly commits at two points in 2026
Month	Monthly commits
April 2026	1.4 billion
August 2026	2.9 billion

Approximate visual estimates from the August 2026 endpoints of GitHub's published charts, not directly reported totals
Measure	Approximate monthly amount near August 2026
Pull requests merged	approximately 130 million per month
New repositories	approximately 24 million per month

DATA: GITHUB RELIABILITY UPDATE ↗03 — 20

THE AUTOMATION / 042024 → 2025 / ANNUAL MINUTES

GITHUB ACTIONS

Automation has
its own scale.

Public and open-source projects used 11.5B Actions minutes in 2025, up 35% from 2024.

ACTIONS MINUTES / BILLIONS PER YEAR+35% YoY

2024
CALCULATED≈8.5B

2025
REPORTED11.5B

Annual GitHub Actions minutes in public and open-source projects; 2024 is calculated from GitHub's stated 35 percent growth
Year	Annual minutes	Basis
2024	approximately 8.5 billion minutes	Calculated: 11.5 billion divided by 1.35
2025	11.5 billion minutes	Directly reported, up 35 percent year over year

Following the August outage, GitHub pivots its reliability work to focus on adding capacity, improving efficiency, and removing architectural bottlenecks

SOURCE / GITHUB RELIABILITY UPDATE ↗

DATA: GITHUB ACTIONS UPDATE ↗04 — 20

THE TENSION / 05CAPABILITY × CONTROL

BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT

Two needs.
One platform.

+DEVELOPERS WANT

More leverage

Agents that can investigate, make a start, and carry work across tools.

LESS FRICTION / MORE CAPABILITY

✓MAINTAINERS NEED

More control

Clear boundaries for intake, automation, review, and the final call.

CLEARER SIGNAL / ACCOUNTABLE DECISIONS

THE ANSWER IS NOT TO CHOOSE ONE SIDE05 — 20

A PRINCIPLE / 06

Speed is not
the goal.
Trustworthy flow is.

Make the path from intent to decision legible to everyone in it.

THE LOOP / NOT JUST THE OUTPUT06 — 20

THE CHOICE / 07PARALLELISM NEEDS A SHAPE

Dimensions of parallelization

Decide where work runs, when it starts, and who remains accountable.

01 / WHERE

Environment

Keep close work local; give independent changes their own workspace.

02 / WHEN

Timing

Work now, on a defined event, or on a deliberate schedule.

03 / WHO

Ownership

Developer, agent, or focused subagents; a person owns the decision.

07 — 20

THE SURFACE / 08PLACE THE WORK DELIBERATELY

Choose the surface for the work.

Match the task to the right degree of direct control, coordination, and isolation.

DIRECT / 01

At the keyboard

VS Code
Copilot CLI

Keep a focused edit and its checks close to your local workspace.

COORDINATE / 02

Across sessions

Copilot app
agent sessions

Follow parallel lanes; bring their results together for review.

DELEGATE / 03

Beyond the laptop

Cloud agents
tasks

Use isolated cloud execution for bounded work when it fits.

08 — 20

THE EDITOR / 09WORK BESIDE THE AGENT

IDEs: VS Code

Start with project context. Inspect the agent's work before it becomes yours.

01 / TASK CONTEXT

Set the boundary.

Give the goal, repository guidance, and a checkable finish line.

HUMAN INPUT

02 / AGENT EDITSVS CODE WORKSPACE

TARGET FILEsetup.md

PROPOSALA focused change

Stay in the editor while the agent explores and proposes edits.

03 / EVIDENCE

Read the result.

Diff + test outcome; note what remains uncertain.

04 / HUMAN REVIEWKeep, revise, or reject.THE DECISION STAYS WITH YOU

09 — 20

THE TERMINAL / 10WORK FROM THE REPOSITORY

GitHub Copilot CLI

Direct a bounded task at the terminal, then check what actually changed.

TERMINAL / LOCAL WORKSPACEHUMAN + AGENT

01 / INSPECT

Find the context.

Read the files and repository instructions.

02 / DIRECT

Name one change.

Set scope and a checkable result.

03 / VERIFY

Check the work.

Run focused commands or tests; inspect the diff.

EVIDENCE TO CARRY FORWARD

What can you show?

CHANGESFiles and diff

CHECKSCommands and outcomes

GAPSWhat remains uncertain

04 / HUMAN REVIEWMake the call.

Keep or revise after reading the evidence.

10 — 20

THE PRESSURE / 11

Parallel work
needs coordination.

Feature A

Feature B

Feature C

SHARED WORKSPACE

CONTEXTSTATEPROCESSESATTENTION

COORDINATION BOTTLENECK

11 — 20

THE WORKSPACE / 12HUMANS STAY IN THE LOOP

GITHUB COPILOT APP

Agent-native
developer tools

Coordinate parallel agent work. See where attention is needed; keep the review and decision with a person.

gh.io/app

PARALLEL WORK / SHARED VIEW

Feature AAdd search functionality

Feature BMigrate the database to PostgreSQL

Feature CFix checkout validation

HUMAN REVIEWDecide what moves forward.

12 — 20

THE MODEL / 13INTENT → EVIDENCE → DECISION

A SHARED CONTRACT

Give the work
a visible path.

Parallel lanes meet again when issues frame the work and PRs carry its evidence.

01 / FRAMEIssue

What needs to change and why?

HUMAN-DEFINED INTENT

02 / EXPLOREAgent

What approach might work?

BOUNDED EXECUTION

03 / SHOWPull request

What changed, and what supports it?

REVIEWABLE EVIDENCE

04 / GOVERNMaintainer

Is this ready to merge?

HUMAN DECISION

The agent contributes to the process. It does not replace the process.

13 — 20

THE REVIEW SURFACE / 14THE DIFF NEEDS A STORY

PULL REQUESTS

Put the handoff
in the PR.

The PR is where generated work becomes reviewable work.

PROPOSED CHANGEREADY FOR REVIEW

Make first-run setup reproducible

− Unclear prerequisite

+ Explicit environment check

+ Verified preview step

AUTHOR: AGENT-ASSISTEDDECISION: MAINTAINER

01ScopeDoes the change match the issue?

02EvidenceDo the checks support the claim?

03JudgmentAre the tradeoffs acceptable?

14 — 20

GitHub issue creation screen from the captioned GitHub CLI attachment walkthrough

Agent-assisted pull request shown in the Copilot app workflow demonstration

Title card for GitHub Copilot in Microsoft Teams

A report enters triage.

Teams message reporting an unexpected duplicate issue closure and asking for triage. — SWIPE IMAGE TO READ

18 — 20

FOLLOW THE HANDOFF / 19

The report gets a record.

Issue details on GitHub. Confirmation back in Slack.

Slack thread where a teammate asks GitHub to file an issue and the agent confirms it has filed one. — SWIPE IMAGE TO READ

GitHub issue opened by an agent, summarizing a duplicate-closure fallback and listing reproduction steps. — SWIPE IMAGE TO READ

Slack confirmation and the GitHub issue created from the report, shown side by side

19 — 20

THE TAKEAWAY / 20BUILD TOGETHER / DECIDE TOGETHER

THE HUMAN + AGENT FUTURE

Build the loop
you can trust.

People set intent. Agents work in isolated lanes. Maintainers decide with evidence.

Julia MuiruriDeveloper Experiences (DX) at GitHub

INTENT

EVIDENCE

DECISION

↗

THANK YOU20 — 20