Modernizing Java applications often means juggling upgrades, refactoring legacy code, fixing dependency issues, and preparing the project for cloud deployment. In this hands on lab, you will learn how to combine GitHub Copilot with deterministic tools like OpenRewrite to accelerate this work without losing control of your codebase.

Participants will clone a real Java project, assess its current state, generate an upgrade plan, apply automated transformations, resolve build issues, modernize frameworks and libraries, and validate the results. You will practice prompting patterns that guide Copilot toward safe, predictable changes, and learn how to capture reusable modernization recipes. By the end of the lab, you will walk away with a repeatable workflow for taking Java applications from legacy to clean, secure, and ready for the cloud.