Summary
On July 1, 2026 GitHub made enterprise managed-settings.json generally available, letting GitHub Enterprise Cloud admins centrally govern Copilot clients (VS Code, Copilot CLI) via a file in a .github-private repo, and added the ability to set model to auto so Copilot auto model selection becomes the default for new conversations.
What changed
Enterprise managed-settings.json (maintained in a .github-private repo) reached general availability for governing Copilot Business and Enterprise clients; admins can now set model to auto in that file to make Copilot auto model selection the default for new conversations, while users can still switch models per conversation.
Why it matters
Central, file-based governance plus a default routing policy gives enterprises consistent control over which models Copilot uses across IDEs and CLI, reducing model sprawl and shadow configuration as coding agents proliferate.
Evidence excerpt
Enterprise administrators can now set model to auto in the enterprise managed-settings.json to make Copilot auto model selection the default for new conversations.