**Title:** File search passes empty ripgrep type and fails
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Description
Title: File search passes empty ripgrep type and fails
Description
Copilot Desktop file/code searches fail across all projects with:
rg: unrecognized file type:
The file-search tool appears to pass an empty file type to ripgrep, equivalent to:
rg --type '' PATTERN
Reproduction
- Open any project in Copilot Desktop.
- Ask Copilot to search project files without specifying a language/file type.
- Search fails with the error above.
- Reproduces across all projects and sessions.
Observed
An empty type value fails consistently. A valid registered type such as js works.
Expected
When no file type is specified, omit the --type/-t argument entirely.
Environment
- Copilot Desktop/CLI version:
1.0.80 - OS: macOS Darwin
- Date observed: August 28, 2026
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| App version | 1.1.14 |
| OS | macOS 27.0.0 |
| Theme | GitHub |
| Path | /chat |
| Tenure | Week 3 |
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at the file-search tool entry point where the ripgrep command is assembled, since the payload names no source file or test. Reproduce a search without a file type and inspect the generated arguments; done means the empty type produces no --type/-t argument while a valid type still works.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- cli, search
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 65/100