GitHub Copilot app modernization - Upgrade for .NET is a public preview AI-powered experience that helps you bring your .NET applications to the latest version quicker and more confidently than ever before. Powered by GitHub Copilot and Agent Mode, it serves as an intelligent upgrade companion that understands your code, determines the right upgrade path, and applies changes step-by-step with minimal manual effort.
🚀 What’s Included
Intelligent upgrade plan generation
The tool analyzes your solution and generates a dependency-aware plan that upgrades projects in the right order.
Automated code transformations
Copilot automatically makes the changes required to get your applications running on modern .NET.
Customizable workflows
You can tailor which projects to upgrade, whether to address packages with security vulnerabilities in your upgrade, and more.
Learning from your manual interventions
When manual intervention is required, the tool can learn from your manual changes and apply those learnings if it encounters a similar situation later on.
Git integration
Git commits are automatically created on your behalf so that you can adopt and test changes incrementally.
Automatic test validation
The tool automatically runs your application’s unit tests to ensure correct behavior post-upgrade.
Agent Mode functionality
Take advantage of Copilot Agent Mode with the latest preview version of Visual Studio installed.
🛠️ Getting Started
Step 1: Install the Extension
Download the GitHub Copilot app modernization - Upgrade for .NET extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace. Once installed, you’re ready to use the tool.
Step 2 (Highly Recommended): Use Copilot Agent Mode
To unlock the full power of AI-assisted upgrades:
- Install the latest preview build of Visual Studio 17.14
- Sign in with a GitHub account that has an active Copilot subscription
- In Visual Studio, go to:
Tools > Options > GitHub > Copilot > Copilot Chat
and check "Enable agent mode in the chat pane."
- Open the Copilot Chat window, click "Ask", then click "Agent" to turn on Agent Mode.
- In the tool selector, choose the "Upgrade" tool to begin.
👉 Learn more about Agent Mode in our blog post.
⚙️ How to Run the Upgrade
You have two options:
Right-click your project or solution in Solution Explorer and select: "Upgrade with GitHub Copilot"
Or, just tell Copilot what you want to do in the Copilot Chat window: "Upgrade my solution to .NET 8"
That’s it! The tool will analyze your code, prepare the upgrade, and help Copilot guide you through the required code changes.
Visual Studio: Enterprise or Community 2022 (latest release)
Repository: Git-based repositories only
Project Targets: .NET Core 3.x, .NET 5, .NET 6, .NET 7, or .NET 8
Project Types: The tool has been tested with WPF, WinForms, Console, Class Library, Web (MVC, Blazor, Razor Pages, Web API), Azure Functions and Test projects such as MSTest, XUnit and NUnit.
Supported Upgrade Paths
This public preview focuses on Core-to-Core upgrades, such as:
- .NET Core 3.x, 5, 6, or 7 → .NET 8 or .NET 9
If your solution is currently on .NET Framework (e.g., .NET Framework 4.8):
- Use the existing .NET Upgrade Assistant to upgrade from .NET Framework to .NET Core (.NET versions 3.x, 5, 6, etc.).
- Once on .NET Core, you can use GitHub Copilot app modernization - upgrade for .NET for the rest of the upgrade process.
This two-step approach ensures the best experience for both Framework-to-Core and Core-to-Core upgrade scenarios.
💬 Share Feedback
Your feedback is crucial as we continue to improve during public preview.
- Use the “Leave Feedback” button in the top-right corner of the tool’s Upgrade Manager in Visual Studio.
- Or, in Visual Studio, navigate to
Help > Send Feedback > Report a Problem or Help > Send Feedback > Suggest a Feature to file an issue or request a feature.
- Or directly fill out our feedback survey.
- Or send feedback via email:
ghcpuacustomerengagement@microsoft.com.
Share your Feedback
We’d love to hear how it’s working for you!
