GitHub took agent skills and MCP support in Copilot code review to general availability on 29 July.
The short version: the thing that reviews your pull requests can now reach outside the diff.
What that changes about a review
A reviewer that only sees the diff can catch syntax, obvious bugs and style. A reviewer that can call an MCP server can check the diff against things the diff does not contain — your internal API contracts, your schema, your deployment rules, your own documentation.
Agent skills are the other half: reusable instructions for how your organisation wants a review done, rather than generic best practice.
Why GA matters more than preview here
Review automation only earns trust when it behaves the same way every time. Preview features change under you. General availability is the point at which it is reasonable to make the bot a required check rather than an advisory voice.
GitHub shipped the next MCP specification support on 23 July, six days earlier. The two are related: the protocol stabilised, then the feature built on it went GA.
Before you turn it on
An MCP-connected reviewer reads whatever you connect it to. Scope those servers deliberately.
- Give the reviewer read access, not write access, wherever that distinction exists
- Start with one skill and one server, not your whole internal estate
- Keep a human approval on merge while you learn what it gets wrong