github / github/copilot-cli

Add support for blocked_tools / allowed_tools for Copilot CLI task tool sub-agents

Open
#3,133 0 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:agents area:permissions
Dominant language
Shell
Stars
11.2k
Forks
1.9k
Avg merge
14h 16m
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Description

### Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

When launching sub-agents via the "task" tool, there's no way to restrict which tools the agent can access. I run a multi-model PR review skill that launches parallel general-purpose agents to review ADO PRs. These agents need ADO read tools to fetch diffs, but should never call write tools like repo_pull_request_thread_write. Despite strong prompt instructions (boxed warnings, banned tool lists, repeated reminders), agents occasionally post full review comments directly to PRs under my identity without authorization. This happened on 4 PRs before I caught it.

### Proposed solution

Add optional blocked_tools and/or allowed_tools parameters to the task tool:

agent_type: general-purpose
mode: background
blocked_tools: ["repo_pull_request_thread_write", "repo_pull_request_write"]

The runtime would reject blocked tool calls before they reach the MCP server. Text-only instructions aren't reliable -- LLMs sometimes override them. The explore agent type removes all MCP tools, but that's too restrictive (loses read access too). There's no middle ground today.

### Example prompts or workflows

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start at the task tool's parameter handling and the runtime path that dispatches sub-agent tool calls; compare how general-purpose and explore agents receive tool access. Done means optional allowed_tools or blocked_tools settings are honored and blocked calls are rejected before reaching the MCP server.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
shell
Domain
cli, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.