How to make Copilot use PR template when generating PR title and description with GitHub Pull Request extension?

[szymonnowak-st]

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We've already set up the Copilot coding agent to use our PR template, so I can assign an issue to Copilot and it will correctly fill out the template.

However, when working locally in VS Code with a local agent, once I'm happy with the code and want to create a PR using the extension and generate the title and description with Copilot, how can I make it follow this PR template?

[Agronault]

Currently, the GitHub Pull Request & Issues extension in VS Code does not automatically "read" your .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md file when you click the "Generate" icon (the sparkles). The generation logic primarily focuses on the diff of your changes.

However, there are two effective ways to force Copilot to respect your template while working locally.

Option 1
Since Copilot is context-aware, it will follow a template if it sees it already present in the text box.
Open the GitHub tab in VS Code and click Create Pull Request, manually paste your PR template into the description box first.
Click the Sparkle icon (Generate Title and Description).
Copilot will see the existing text/headers and will usually attempt to fill in the sections defined by your template rather than overwriting it entirely.

Option 2
Type a prompt like this:
@github fill out a PR description for my current changes using the template in #file:.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md