Not every modernization step should happen at once — and sometimes the right move is proving that now isn't the time. In this episode, learn how to customize GitHub Copilot's modernization tasks to match your team's real constraints: excluding risky upgrades, breaking work into smaller reviewable steps, and validating the current state before changing anything.

In this episode, you'll learn:
→ How GitHub Copilot generates editable modernization task lists — a first draft, not a final decision
→ How to set explicit constraints — telling Copilot what NOT to do (e.g., exclude Java and Spring upgrades)
→ How to break large upgrades into smaller, reviewable tasks that match your team's risk tolerance
→ How to add custom requirements to the task list, just like a real engineering backlog
→ How Copilot handles pre-existing issues (like a failing Mockito test) without silently patching them
→ How Copilot surfaces CVEs while respecting your constraints — no silent changes, no unsafe assumptions

📺 This is Episode 5 of the Modernize Java Apps with AI series — a 9-part, hands-on guide to upgrading legacy Java applications using GitHub Copilot.

🔗 Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrxD0HtieHhaBJWlcxGd-kTDikSD4xyD
🔗 GitHub Copilot Modernization extension: https://aka.ms/GHCPMod-Java

👤 Presented by Sandra Ahlgrimm, Java & AI Advocate, Microsoft

Java #GitHubCopilot #JavaModernization #CustomTasks #CVE #DeveloperWorkflow #AI #EnterpriseJava #LegacyCode #ModernizationStrategy

Microsoft Developer

GitHub Copilot's modernization feature in IntelliJ lets developers customize upgrade tasks for Java applications rather than applying automatic rewrites. Copilot generates a task list as a first draft, which teams can edit to add constraints, exclude specific upgrades (like Java and Spring version bumps), and break changes into smaller reviewable steps. Tasks are applied one at a time with full developer control. In a demo, excluding Java and Spring upgrades resulted in no file changes — the intended outcome — while Copilot still surfaced a pre-existing Mockito test failure and known CVEs in Spring, explaining why they can't be fixed within the current constraints. The key principle: modernization is about developer-controlled, explicit changes, not silent automatic rewrites.

Customize Copilot Modernization Tasks