GitHub Copilot for Engineering Managers — three-level starter set

This bundle resets the earlier work into a simpler progression.

The three levels

Level 1 — Try It

Use GitHub.com only. Use one shared Space. Learn three manager plays:

1. understand the work
2. turn rough notes into a clean issue
3. understand a pull request without reading every line

Level 2 — Work With It

Add VS Code and a light amount of Copilot CLI inside the VS Code terminal. Keep the surface area small:

• built-in chat modes: Ask, Plan, Edit
• two custom agents
• a tiny CLI cheat sheet

Level 3 — Scale It

Add a small reusable agent catalog and introduce the built-in coding agent only after people can create well-scoped issues and review AI output safely.

Why only three levels

Three levels match the product surface area and the user's real cognitive load.

• Level 1 maps to GitHub.com, Spaces, issue creation, PR summaries, and code review.
• Level 2 maps to VS Code chat modes, file context, two shared agents, and light terminal use.
• Level 3 maps to standardization, delegation, governance, and measurement.

Five levels would create too many choices too early. One or two levels would mix beginners and champions together and make the path feel either too shallow or too overwhelming.

Who this is for

This is for managers of engineers who spend real time in GitHub repositories, issues, and pull requests.

If someone rarely opens GitHub and lives mostly in Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and SharePoint, they should usually start with Microsoft 365 Copilot instead of this program. See RESEARCH_FOUNDATION.md and LEVEL_SELECTION_GUIDE.md.

Files in this bundle

• THREE_LEVEL_BLUEPRINT.md
• LEVEL_SELECTION_GUIDE.md
• RESEARCH_FOUNDATION.md
• level-1-guided-manager/
• level-2-technical-manager/
• level-3-manager-os/
• SOURCES.md