It feels like every week there’s a new AI announcement. Well, this week it was GitHub’s turn to drop a the latest skynet update. They’ve just unveiled what they’re calling “Agent HQ” and “mission control,” and it looks like they’re about to fundamentally change how we interact with AI in our development workflows.

I’ve been doing a lot of talking about AI lately but this is taking it to a whole new level. We’re not just talking about code completion anymore; we’re talking about orchestrating a whole team of AI agents to tackle complex tasks. I have to say it’s a bit odd timing considering I’ve just started playing with multi-agent workflows. I swear they’re watching me *paranoid looks*.

What are these new tools?

Think of Agent HQ as a central hub where you can manage all your AI coding agents. GitHub is partnering with a whole host of AI providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and others, and you’ll be able to access them all through your Copilot subscription. It’s like having an entire roster of AI agents, each with their own strengths, ready to be deployed on your projects.

Mission control, on the other hand, is the command center for these agents. It’s a redesigned, streamlined interface on github.com that gives you a centralized place to manage all your AI-powered tasks. You’ll have a single view to track the progress of all your agents, and you can even intervene in real-time to steer them if they’re going off course. This is a huge step up from the fire-and-forget approach of simply prompting an AI and hoping for the best.

But it gets even better. You’re not tied to one platform. You can kick off a task on the GitHub website, and then seamlessly switch over to VS Code, the CLI, or even your phone to continue working on it. This level of flexibility is definately going to be changing some things up!

New Features to Make You an AI Puppet Master

So what can you actually do with all this? Here are some of the highlights:

  • Branch Controls and Agent Identity: You’ll be able to give your agents their own identities and control which branches they can work on. This is a huge step towards safely integrating AI into your development process.
  • One-Click Merge Conflict Resolution: This is the one that really caught my eye. Imagine an agent that can not only write code but also resolve merge conflicts for you. That’s the dream, right? Let’s face it, this is going to save a lot of us a lot of headaches.
  • “Plan Mode” in VS Code: This will help Copilot break down complex tasks into a step-by-step plan. You’ll be able to review the plan and make adjustments before the agent starts coding.
  • Custom Agents: You’ll be able to create your own custom agents using AGENTS.md files, allowing you to tailor the agents to your specific needs.
  • Code Quality and Metrics: GitHub is also launching a new Code Quality dashboard to give more visibility into your code. This with the new Copilot metrics dashboard, you’ll be able to track how everyone on the team is using AI.

Why Should You Care?

This is more than just a new set of tools; it’s a shift in how we think about software development. We’re moving from a world where we write all the code ourselves to a world where we manage a team of AI agents that do a lot of the heavy lifting for us. I guess the future is here and maybe us as developers should be slightly concerned for our jobs. For individual developers, this means you’ll be able to take on more complex tasks and be more productive. For teams, it means you’ll be able to automate more of your development process and ship faster.

Of course, there are still a lot of questions to be answered. How will we ensure the quality of the code that these agents produce? How will we manage the security risks of giving AI agents access to our codebases? What about the various compliance requirements? These are all things that we’ll have to be figuring out as we go, or at least get legal started on them.

What About the Enterprise?

As far as the big companies out there, with all this new AI power comes the need for control and governance. GitHub is introducing a new suite of Enterprise AI controls. This will give administrators a consolidated view for managing all AI-related tasks, as well as tools for creating custom agents. You’ll also have visibility into agent session activity and audit logs, so you can see exactly what your AI agents are up to.

GitHub is planning to release fine-grained permissions for AI administration, as well as an MCP enterprise allowlist for governing connections in VS Code. This will give enterprises the granular control they need to safely and securely adopt these new AI features.

The Future is Agentic

One thing is for sure: the future of software development is agentic. GitHub is making a big bet on this future, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out. With the new enterprise controls, it’s clear that GitHub is serious about making this technology ready for the big leagues. I, for one, am interested to see what these new tools can do and how companies are going to adopt them.