github / github/copilot-cli

BYOK gpt-5.5 --effort xhigh falls back to medium for individual plan

Open
#3,119 0 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:configuration area:models
Dominant language
Shell
Stars
11.2k
Forks
1.9k
Avg merge
14h 16m
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Description

## Summary

When using Copilot CLI with a BYOK/custom provider for `gpt-5.5`, `--effort xhigh` falls back to `medium` if the user is signed in with an individual Copilot plan.

With the same BYOK provider, the same `gpt-5.5` model, and the same command, `xhigh` works as expected when `COPILOT_OFFLINE=true` is set.

## Environment

- Copilot CLI: 1.0.40
- Platform: macOS arm64
- Provider mode: BYOK/custom provider
- Provider wire API: responses
- Model: `gpt-5.5` through a custom provider
- GitHub Copilot plan: individual

Relevant environment variables:

```text
COPILOT_MODEL=gpt-5.5
COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=
COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=
COPILOT_PROVIDER_WIRE_API=responses
```

## Reproduction steps

1. Configure a BYOK/custom provider:

```bash
export COPILOT_MODEL=gpt-5.5
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY=
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_WIRE_API=responses
```

2. Run:

```bash
copilot --effort xhigh --log-level debug --prompt "Reply with exactly: OK" --silent --allow-all-tools
```

3. Check the debug log.

## Actual behavior

Copilot CLI uses the custom provider, but the effective reasoning effort becomes `medium`:

```text
Using custom provider: type=openai, wireApi=responses
"defaultReasoningEffort": "medium"
"reasoning_effort": "medium"
```

The debug log also shows that the GitHub plan context is `individual`:

```text
github_copilotcli_copilotplan=individual
```

## Expected behavior

When `COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL` is set and inference is routed to a custom provider, `--effort xhigh` should be preserved if the selected provider/model supports it. It should not be downgraded based on the GitHub Copilot account plan.

Expected debug output:

```text
"defaultReasoningEffort": "xhigh"
"reasoning_effort": "xhigh"
```

## Control test

With the same BYOK provider, the same `gpt-5.5` model, and the same command, adding `COPILOT_OFFLINE=true` makes `xhigh` work:

```bash
COPILOT_OFFLINE=true copilot --effort xhigh --log-level debug --prompt "Reply with exactly: OK" --silent --allow-all-tools
```

Debug log:

```text
Running in offline mode. GitHub features are unavailable.
Using custom provider: type=openai, wireApi=responses
"defaultReasoningEffort": "xhigh"
```

## Additional check

With the same BYOK provider, `--effort high` works correctly:

```text
"defaultReasoningEffort": "high"
"reasoning_effort": "high"
```

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.