MCP servers reported as "blocked by policy" on first launch when using a custom config directory
- Dominant language
- Shell
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Description
### Describe the bug
When launching Copilot CLI with a non-default config directory, MCP servers are incorrectly reported as "blocked by policy". Sending one message and restarting (/restart) fixes it for that session.
### Affected version
1.0.20
### Steps to reproduce the behavior
1. Launch Copilot CLI with a non-default config directory (e.g. via env var pointing to a custom ~/.copilot-/ folder)
2. Observe that MCP servers are reported as blocked by policy immediately on startup
3. Send one message, then /restart
4. MCP servers now load correctly
### Expected behavior
MCP servers load on first launch.
### Additional context
Root cause hypothesis: The custom config dir has no session-store.db, so there is no cached policy state. The CLI appears to have a race condition where MCP initialization completes
before the async enterprise policy fetch from the GHE host finishes — defaulting to "blocked" instead of waiting for the result.
Workaround: One message + /restart resolves it for that session.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the first-launch flow with a non-default config directory and trace MCP initialization alongside the asynchronous enterprise policy fetch from the GHE host. Done means MCP servers load correctly on the initial launch without requiring a message and /restart, with regression coverage for a missing session-store.db.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- shell
- Domain
- cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100