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Asking copilot to run dotnet build /t:Target results in a prompt for access to directory outside the allowed location #1015
Description
Describe the bug
When copilot wants to run dotnet build /t:TestTarget command, the Copilot CLI will prompt the user like this:
╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Allow directory access │
│ │
│ Copilot is attempting to read the following path outside your allowed directory list. │
│ │
│ ╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ /t:TestTarget │ │
│ ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ │
│ Do you want to add these directories to the allowed list? │
│ │
│ ❯ 1. Yes │
│ 2. No (Esc) │
│ │
│ Confirm with number keys or ↑↓ keys and Enter, Cancel with Esc │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
This is on Windows where such path is non-sense, but even on Linux such path is basically impossible. It also means that the user can't tell the copilot CLI to allow this execution for future executions, requiring prompt every time.
Affected version
0.0.384 Commit: 0b21260
Steps to reproduce the behavior
I prepared a gist https://gist.github.com/vitek-karas/54ffafdc2f0221a22d250974092b84b6 with a simple repro - just move copilot-instructions.md to the .github directory and then prompt copilot "Test the target".
Expected behavior
This is not a path and CLI should treat it as a normal "dotnet build" invocation.
Additional context
Windows, x64, Windows Terminal, powershell
I can provide logs directly (since they contain PII I won't share them in public) - I'm an FTE.
Activity
dogmatic69 commentedon Jan 17, 2026
duplicate of #884 #884 (comment)
RyanHecht commentedon Jan 21, 2026
Going to close this as a duplicate of #884 -- this is on the team's radar and we want to improve the path detection heuristics!
RyanHecht commentedon Jan 21, 2026
RyanHecht commentedon Jan 21, 2026
Sorry, wrong issue: #159 and #67 are more appropriate