# Creating custom agents for Copilot cloud agent You can create specialized agents with tailored expertise for specific development tasks. Custom agents allow you to tailor Copilot's expertise for specific tasks. For a conceptual overview of custom agents, see [About custom agents]

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Testing and releasing custom agents in your organization or enterprise

Ensure your custom agents are performant and compliant before releasing them to your company.

Note

Copilot custom agents are in public preview and subject to change.

Introduction

Before you release or update a custom agent in your organization or enterprise, you can test the agent privately to ensure it meets your standards. Once you are satisfied, you can then easily change the location of your agent profile to make it available across your company.

Prerequisites

Before you can test a custom agent, you need to set up your organization or enterprise for custom agents. See Preparing to use custom agents in your organization or Preparing to use custom agents in your enterprise.

1. Create your test custom agent

1. In your organization or enterprise's .github-private repository, create a new directory called .github/agents. Agents stored in this directory are only available to members of your organization or enterprise who have access to the .github-private repository, and can only be used when they start a task within that repository.
2. In your .github/agents directory, create the agent profile for your test agent. You can create a net-new profile or duplicate an existing profile to test potential updates. For information on configuring an agent profile, see Creating custom agents for Copilot cloud agent.
3. Merge your test agent profile into the default branch of your repository.

2. Test your custom agent

1. Go to the agents tab at https://github.com/copilot/agents.
2. Using the dropdown menu in the prompt box, select your .github-private repository.
3. Select , then click your test agent.
4. To test your custom agent, send Copilot a prompt.
5. In the "Recent sessions" section, click your session to see detailed information about your results.
6. Continue making changes and testing your custom agent as needed until you are satisfied with its performance.

3. Release your custom agent

1. In your .github-private repository, move your agent profile from the .github/agents directory into the agents directory.
2. Merge your changes into the default branch. Your custom agent is now available to all users in your organization or enterprise.

Next steps

To monitor the usage of custom agents in your organization, filter your organization's audit log by actor:Copilot. See Reviewing the audit log for your organization.

To monitor the usage of custom agents in your enterprise, see Monitoring agentic activity in your enterprise.