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Copilot appears to not use github mcp server #268
Description
Describe the bug
Even when prompted, copilot cli appears unable to use its built-in github mcp server and instead defaults to using gh on the command line.
Affected version
0.0.325 Commit: 16ceace
Steps to reproduce the behavior
- Open a branch you want copilot to make changes on. I'm commonly using it to address simple feedback on a PR.
- Ask copilot to address feedback and paste a link to a github PR.
Expected behavior
Copilot uses its built-in MCP server to retrieve information about the PR, as it did in earlier versions.
What I get now is prompts to authorize it using gh on the command line to retrieve the information. When prompted to use its MCP server, I get output ranging from other, random command lines to denials that has a tool available for this:
│ > Remember to use your MCP server │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
● I understand you want me to use the MCP server for GitHub interactions, but I
don't see any MCP server tools available in my function list. The available
tools I have are:
* bash - for running bash commands
* write_bash - for sending input to bash sessions
* read_bash - for reading bash output
* stop_bash - for stopping bash commands
* str_replace_editor - for file editing
Additional context
No response
Activity
williammartin commentedon Oct 13, 2025
Hey,
0.0.325is pretty old with us releasing every day. Would you mind trying again? I can't reproduce this.333fred commentedon Oct 13, 2025
Well, good news, 0.0.340 doesn't repro this problem immediately. Bad news, it's because nothing is working at all:
williammartin commentedon Oct 14, 2025
LGTM! 😅
If you run
copilot --log-level alland grab your session id from/sessionslash command, then you can check your logs in~/.copilot/logs/<session_id>.logand see what the underlying error is here.333fred commentedon Oct 14, 2025
On a hunch, I tried re-logging in, under the assumption that the internal preview had a different key or something vs the public preview. No dice, the second set of errors are from after that.
williammartin commentedon Oct 15, 2025
Thanks, looks like it might be the same as #116. Pretty unhelpful error message there, will merge something today to improve that.
williammartin commentedon Oct 16, 2025
@333fred can you try again and check the logs to see if there is any more info?
333fred commentedon Oct 22, 2025
Sorry @williammartin, was out Thurs-Tues, so I just got around to this. Some more data this time:
333fred commentedon Oct 31, 2025
@williammartin this is still happening, with 0.0.353. Any updates/suggestions?
williammartin commentedon Nov 3, 2025
Well,
Is the obvious culprit here, but it's not a very informative error again, sadly. I'll open a PR to get more information in there. Is it possible that you have a network proxy that might be rejecting requests to "https://api.individual.githubcopilot.com/mcp/readonly" ?
I'm somewhat sus that you are hitting
api.individual.githubcopilot.combecause seeing that you are a Microsoft employee, most of the time I would expect an enterprise member to end up atapi.enterprise.githubcopilot.com. I think in some other issues we've seen problems getting the right endpoint with no obvious answer. In the meantime maybe you could try to hit those endpoints and see whether anything interesting pops up.RyanHecht commentedon Feb 25, 2026
We've since made improvements both to logging and to using proper URL's for your Copilot SKU -- going to close this issue, @333fred please let us know if you're still encountering similar problems on the latest versions!