Please enable Copilot reviews

[camilamacedo86]

I would like to propose enabling GitHub Copilot’s PR review capabilities for the kubernetes-sigs/controller-tools repository on an experimental basis.

The goal is to evaluate whether AI-assisted review can:

• Improve review turnaround time
• Help identify missing test coverage or edge cases
• Reduce reviewer load for routine feedback

Motivation

There has been ongoing discussion in SIG ContribEx about adopting AI-assisted code review tools (e.g. kubespray issue kubernetes-sigs/kubespray#12573 and related discussions).

Additionally, the proposed policy in:
kubernetes/community#8910

suggests a per-repo, opt-in model for evaluating AI review tools.

This request aims to align with that direction by starting with a small, controlled experiment in a single repo.

Related discussions:

• Enhancement Request: AI-Agent-Driven Code Review Automation kubespray#12573
• REQUEST: Enable coderabbit github integration for jobset and kueue kubernetes/org#5930 (CodeRabbit request)
• Add AI code review tools evaluation policy kubernetes/community#8910 (AI review policy draft)

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @sbueringer, @joelanford , @vincepri

In the past I had permissions to manage repo settings/config to admin this project, but I no longer have.

If you go to Settings → Copilot, there’s an option to allow contributors/maintainers to request Copilot reviews on PRs. Enabling that would let anyone trigger a Copilot review when needed:

That would allow us to do things like:

Request a Copilot review directly on a PR
Use it optionally (no automation or enforcement)

Could you please take a look at enabling this for the repo?

It is very helpful, reduces the burn and help us to ensure better quality.
We have been using it in Kubebuilder and along many other projects under SIG as outside of it ( CNFC projects )

[janetkuo]

I have tried it in the agent-sandbox repo, this will only be available to users who already have Copilot subscription, even if it's enabled in the repo. It has to be enabled at the org level to get Copilot reviews for all users (and the usage will be paid by the org).

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @janetkuo,

In other repositories, I’ve been adding Copilot reviews for contributions beyond just my own PRs.

Anyway, what I’m asking here is simply to allow its use when a contributor or maintainer chooses/can to enable it.

This approach is already being used across many SIG and CNCF projects.

[sbueringer]

Can you please point to a documented policy around this?

I'm only aware of this PR: kubernetes/community#8910

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @sbueringer,

Thanks for looking into this.

Just to clarify — I am only asking to allow usage, not to add it by default.
It should be optional, so people can use it if they want.

In our case, we any permission that we cannot change in the repos are not available for us. You can check that you cannot enable for example GH models.

So I am just asking to enable it here:
#1380 (comment)

Many projects already allow this (Beyond Kubebuilder, yes, in Kubebuilder, I changed the permission to allow, and I have been using that)

As far as I know, there is no policy that forbids contributors from using Copilot in PR reviews if they have access.

See: https://kubernetes.slack.com/archives/C1TU9EB9S/p1758759751290339?thread_ts=1758680009.301719&cid=C1TU9EB9S

Also, I shared links in the description showing related discussions. Some people are even exploring enabling AI reviews by default (for example: kubernetes/org#5930).

[janetkuo]

As far as I know, there is no policy that forbids contributors from using Copilot in PR reviews if they have access.

CNCF provides all maintainers Copilot Enterprise access.
There's also a presentation about it at KubeCon EU maintainer summit https://maintainersummiteu2026.sched.com/event/2EWes/agentic-ai-for-maintainers-getting-the-most-from-github-copilot-enterprise-nate-waddington-cncf
So I believe Copilot usage is allowed in CNCF repos.

[sbueringer]

CNCF provides all maintainers Copilot Enterprise access.

I think more precisely everyone who is on https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/main/project-maintainers.csv, which afaik means sig chairs and tech leads: kubernetes/steering#281

xref: https://contribute.cncf.io/blog/2025/12/16/github-copilot-enterprise-for-maintainers/