GitHub Copilot License Assignment

This repository contains an Issue Template and a GitHub Actions workflow that automates the assignment of GitHub Copilot licenses to users. The workflow is triggered when an issue is labeled with copilot-request.

Objective

The main goal of this repository is to automate the process of assigning GitHub Copilot licenses. Instead of manually assigning licenses, the organization can leverage this solution to simply let the users open an issue using the provided issue template, and the workflow will automatically assign a license to them, when the user opens the issue they are committing to use the GitHub Copilot license.

How to configure this repository in your organization

Click on Use this template to create a new repository in your GitHub organization where you want to automate the GitHub Copilot license assignment.
Create a new label in that new repository named copilot-request.
The GitHub Enterprise Owner or GitHub Organization Owner needs to enable GitHub Copilot for the organization where the repository is located. For more details, refer to the official documentation.
In the GitHub Organization, create a new GitHub App by going to Settings, then Developer settings and then GitHub Apps, click on New GitHub App and provide the Name, Homepage URL (could be any URL) and the following permissions:
- repository:metadata:ready-only
- organization:GitHub Copilot Business:read and write
In the App Settings click on Install App in the left menu and select the repository that you created before.
Store the GitHub App ID in the repository secrets with the name APPLICATION_ID.
In the App Settings, scroll down to the Private keys section and click on Generate a private key for the GitHub App and store the plain text of the .pem file in the repository secrets with the name APPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY.

Note: The workflow use the GITHUB_TOKEN to comment and close the issue, this token is automatically created by GitHub and is available to use in the workflow, however the GITHUB_TOKEN needs to have Read and write permissions you can check this in the organization settings, then Actions, In the Workflow permissions of General. Alternatively, you can use the GitHub App that you just created to comment and close the issue but you will need to enable the Issue permissions in the App settings with the Read and write access level and change the line 50 and 78 of the workflow to use the GitHub App token GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.get_workflow_token.outputs.token }} instead of the GITHUB_TOKEN.

How users can request a GitHub Copilot License

Note: At this point GitHub Copilot should be enabled in the organization, the label copilot-request should be created and the GitHub App configured with the secrets 'APPLICATION_ID' and 'APPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY' already stored in the repository.

Users can now open a new issue in this repository using the issue template 'Request GitHub Copilot License'.
The workflow will be triggered automatically and if successful, a GitHub Copilot license will be assigned to the user's account.

Issue Template

The issue template Request GitHub Copilot License is provided to standardize the license request process. The template uses the label copilot-request to trigger the workflow that assigns GitHub Copilot licenses, this label needs to be created in the repository before opening an issue. The template contains a notice to the user about the commitment they're making by requesting the GitHub Copilot license, informing the user about what will happen once their license request is fulfilled, a motivational message for the user, and a thank you note to the user.

GitHub Action Workflow

The workflow assign_github_copilot_license.yml is triggered when an issue is labeled with copilot-request. The workflow uses the GitHub API through octokit to assign the GitHub Copilot license to the user who opened the issue. A token is generated using Peter Murray's Action. Upon successful execution, the workflow comments on the issue and closes it. In case of failure, it comments on the issue to notify about the failure and leaves the issue open. The workflow uses the GITHUB_TOKEN to comment and close the issue opened by the user. The execution of the workflow takes less than 1 minute.