GitHub’s November 6, 2026 update introduces a review canvas in Microsoft Teams for software teams working with Copilot. The canvas places Copilot’s proposed work beside the team conversation.
The Teams guide says an Open canvas button appears when a session starts. The panel shows the agent’s plan, file changes and an overview of pull requests—proposals to bring changes into a project’s code. It is read-only and respects the viewer’s linked GitHub account permissions.
The new announcement also labels Slack and Teams generally available. However, GitHub’s October 28 announcement already included both in a generally available cloud experience. GitHub does not explain the difference between those availability statements; November 6 should not be treated as the first time coding from chat became available.
The canvas is a Teams feature. Slack’s guide instead describes a dedicated code channel for collaborating on a task. For background on the earlier conversational workflow, see RohitAI’s October coverage of cross-repository questions in Slack and Teams.
Viewing, steering and approval are different
A read-only panel does not make the surrounding agent session read-only. GitHub’s shared-session rules let participants contribute context, but starting or steering code changes requires write access to every selected repository. Workspace guests and repository outside collaborators cannot start or steer sessions.
That distinction also matters when choosing a discussion. Both integration guides say Copilot captures the entire thread and stores its context in the work it generates; the Slack guidance suggests a direct message to limit that context. A colleague can therefore contribute information without having permission to command changes.
Inspecting the result is not the same as approving its merge. GitHub’s repository rules include a preview setting, enabled by default, that adds one approval for Copilot pull requests not attributed to a person, such as those from shared conversations. It applies only when the ruleset already requires at least one approval, and administrators can disable it.
What to check before using the canvas
The current Teams requirements include paid Copilot access, the GitHub app and a linked GitHub account. Organizations can disable cloud-agent access; running the task in a cloud sandbox does not require a separate sandbox-access switch.
Paid access does not mean unlimited coding tasks. For organizations, cloud-agent model usage consumes AI credits, with costs depending on the model and text processed. The hosted environment has separate usage meters for compute, memory and saved snapshots. An AI-credit budget does not cap sandbox spending.
For a first use, choose a small proposed change and name the reviewer before starting. Use the canvas to discuss whether the plan matches the request, then assess the code and complete the repository’s review process before merging. That separates a useful shared view from the decision to accept the work.