--- title: Use Autopilot with GitHub source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/use-autopilot-with-github --- > #### 💡 PREVIEW > > We're still working on this feature, but we'd love for you to try it out! > > This feature is currently provided as part of a preview program pursuant to our [pre-release policies](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/licenses/license-information/referenced-policies/new-relic-pre-release-policy). Once you [connect Autopilot to GitHub](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/connect-to-github), GitHub context flows into investigations automatically. The examples on this page apply to all supported GitHub environments: public GitHub (`github.com`) and GitHub Enterprise Cloud (`YOURSUBDOMAIN.ghe.com`). You do not have to mention GitHub. When Autopilot finds a Change Tracking event with a commit SHA during an investigation, it fetches the associated Pull Request and surfaces it as part of the response. ## What you can do [#capabilities] When Autopilot has GitHub access and a Change Tracking event with a commit SHA, it can: - **Link a deployment to a PR.** Given a commit SHA on a Change Tracking event, return the associated Pull Request (number, title, description, URL). - **Summarize what changed.** Report the files touched and the added/deleted line counts for the PR that shipped the incident-adjacent deployment. - **Answer follow-ups in the same investigation.** Once the PR is on the record, you can ask Autopilot to compare it to the previous deployment or to correlate the change with the failing signal. - **Run alert-triggered or manual investigations.** The GitHub lookup runs the same way whether Autopilot is triggered by an alert with an SRE destination or invoked manually from Slack or the AI Chat panel. ## Investigate an alert with deployment context [#alert-investigation] When an alert with an SRE destination fires and Change Tracking has a matching event, Autopilot's investigation notes the PR that shipped the change and what it touched. Illustrative example (not a real investigation): > **You:** @New Relic why is `` alerting? > > **Autopilot:** Error rate on `` rose sharply around ``. A Change Tracking event a few minutes earlier corresponds to PR #`` ("``") which touched `` files in `` (+``/−`` lines). Author: ``. Link: github.com/``/``/pull/``. ## Ask follow-ups in the same thread [#follow-ups] Continue in the same investigation thread. Autopilot keeps the PR and commit context on the record and can reason about it in follow-ups: > **You:** @New Relic what was the deployment before that? > > **Autopilot:** [returns the previous Change Tracking event and, if present, the PR and commit that carried it] ## Manual investigations [#manual-investigations] You can also trigger a GitHub-aware investigation manually from Slack or from the New Relic AI Chat panel. Reference the entity or the incident and ask Autopilot to investigate; the GitHub lookup runs the same way. ## How Autopilot uses GitHub data [#how-it-works] When Autopilot identifies a Change Tracking event containing a commit SHA during an investigation, it uses the following GitHub MCP tools: | Tool | What it does | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `pull_request_read` | Fetches the associated Pull Request once a commit is matched — extracts the URL, title, description, and author to provide full deployment context for the root cause analysis. | | `search_commits` | Searches commits using the full SHA commit value. | | `search_pull_requests` | Resolves Pull Request details — including links and metadata — by querying against the commit SHA and entity name. | | `list_pull_requests` | Retrieves recently merged Pull Requests from the repository to provide high-level summaries of code movement. | | `get_commit` | Inspects the specific commit hash to surface the files changed and the addition/deletion line counts attributed to the deployment. | | `list_commits` | Generates a chronological list of commits to help correlate specific merges with the timing of an incident. | Autopilot does the following: - Reads Pull Request metadata and commit change metadata (files changed, additions, deletions) from the commit SHA on the Change Tracking event. - Is subject to the permissions in the PAT and does not write PRs or comments, or take merge or approval actions. - Returns a synthesized summary of the PR and commit to the requesting user through the same response channel as the rest of the investigation. > #### ⚠️ CAUTION > > Autopilot reads whatever GitHub returns for the linked commit — including the free-text PR description body and file change metadata (files changed, additions/deletions) from the Contents: Read scope. If a connected repository contains hardcoded credentials, API keys, secrets, or highly sensitive information in code files or PR descriptions, that content may flow into Autopilot's investigation context and may be saved. > > To reduce this risk: > > - Do not connect repositories where credentials, keys, secrets, or highly sensitive information are committed directly to code or configuration files. Use the PAT's repository scope to exclude those repos (see [Step 1](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/connect-to-github/#create-token)). > - Do not put credentials, secrets, API keys, highly sensitive information, or tokens in PR descriptions of connected repositories. If those are included in a PR description, revoke it and rewrite the PR description before enabling the integration on that repo. > #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT > > Responses that include PR context are visible to the same audience as the rest of the investigation. If the investigation is running in a Slack thread, everyone in the thread sees the summarized PR details. Autopilot queries GitHub with the org-level token, but its replies are visible to whoever Autopilot is answering. ## Related articles [#related] - [Connect Autopilot to GitHub](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/connect-to-github) - [Troubleshoot the GitHub connection](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/troubleshoot-github-connection) - [Use Autopilot](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/agentic-ai/autopilot/use-autopilot)