github / github/copilot-cli

Some Copilot CLI base instructions issued to a subagent prevent it from writing output to a file

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#3,335 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:agents area:context-memory
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Description

### Describe the bug

- I created a set of agents forming an orchestrator pattern for the full Work Item implementation
- When orchestrator executes a subagent responsible for functional testing this subagent consistently reports that it either could not write a test result file or was **instructed not to write output to a file**
- In either orchestrator or functional tester there are absolutely no instructions to prevent writing output files
- Orchestrator invokes the functional testing subagent only with the Work Item ID (no other `runSubagent` additional instructions)
- In other subagents for phases like Implementation everything works perfectly fine

Sample response from functional testing subagent (**GPT 5.3 Codex**) "...but I could not write the required notes file due the active session constraint: “Do NOT write output to files.”"

Related bug report: #3049
### Affected version

_No response_

### Steps to reproduce the behavior

_No response_

### Expected behavior

_No response_

### Additional context

The same workflow works 100% fine when run via VS Code.

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