GitHub Copilot: Chat and VS Code agent usage, expanded impact dashboard

1. Nine experiences in one chart

The dashboard's agent adoption chart now includes Copilot Chat and the VS Code agent window. GitHub says these additions bring the total from seven to nine Copilot experiences. Both also appear in 28-day enterprise and organization usage metrics reports.

This extends earlier work to show Copilot feature engagement on the dashboard. GitHub said chat was missing from the view despite being a core way to use Copilot. The focus is on letting administrators see chat-centered developers' activity by feature.

2. From passive users to chat-first users

Alongside chat, the adoption cohort name changed from passive users to chat-first users. These users are active in Copilot but do not meet the threshold of using a qualifying feature on at least two days within 28 days. Adoption stages classify users by their use of qualifying features.

The new name emphasizes usage patterns rather than activity levels. The adoption-stage criteria and cohort size are unchanged, and the API value remains 'No Cohort'. Knowing how the display name maps to the API value helps administrators track the same cohort.

3. Engagement requires use on two days within 28 days

Feature engagement counts users who used a feature on at least two days within a 28-day period. The two new features follow the same rule as existing ones. Each feature's engagement count measures people who used it within the specified period.

The chat entry covers Copilot Chat usage recorded in usage metrics, including agent mode, which handles delegated coding tasks. The announcement says users who made agent edits also count toward chat. Read this metric as covering both conversation and agent-driven editing.

A user can count toward multiple features, and chat and VS Code agent window engagement do not affect adoption-stage classification. Reports for periods before the change contain only seven features. Check feature coverage when comparing them with newer reports.

4. Included in 28-day enterprise and organization reports

Administrators accessing reports through the API can inspect copilot_feature_engagement.totals_by_feature, the per-feature aggregation field in 28-day enterprise and organization reports.

The added entries are named chat and vscode_agent. This mirrors the dashboard change so administrators can find the same two features in reports.

Enterprise owners, billing managers responsible for billing, organization owners, and custom organization or enterprise roles with 'View Copilot Metrics' permission can access the data. The Copilot usage metrics policy must also be enabled. The dashboard and usage metrics API documentation explain how to access it.

5. Broader visibility and consistent interpretation

Administrators can now see chat-centered usage in the feature engagement view. Using it requires interpreting the newly visible activity alongside existing adoption stages. The feature view shows which tools people use, while adoption stages classify users under defined criteria.

The key change is not a new assessment of developers' tool use, but bringing previously missing chat and agent activity into administrators' view.