github / github/copilot-cli

MAI-Code-1-Flash model frequently OOM-killed while Haiku/Sonnet succeed on same prompts

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area:models
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Description

## Environment
- **OS:** Ubuntu 24.04, Azure VM (Standard_DS2_v2)
- **RAM:** 7.7 GB + 4 GB swap
- **Available memory at time of test:** ~5.5 GB
- **Copilot CLI version:** 1.0.60
- **Node.js:** v22.22.2

## Problem
The `mai-code-1-flash-internal` model is frequently killed by the Linux OOM killer when running via Copilot CLI, while other models (`claude-haiku-4.5`, `claude-sonnet-4.6`) succeed on the exact same prompts under identical conditions.

## Question
Is the higher memory consumption of `mai-code-1-flash-internal` compared to other models (e.g. `claude-haiku-4.5`) an expected/known behavior, or is this a bug? If expected, is there documentation on per-model memory requirements?

## Steps to Reproduce
1. Clear page cache: `sudo sh -c 'echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches'`
2. Confirm ~5.5 GB available memory
3. Run: `copilot -p 'Review myfile.py for bugs' --model mai-code-1-flash-internal --allow-all-tools`
4. Process exits with SIGKILL (OOM) within 30-60 seconds
5. Run same prompt with `--model claude-haiku-4.5` — succeeds

## Observations
- Simple prompts (`copilot -p 'say hello'`) work fine with MAI
- MAI fails consistently when using `--allow-all-tools` and reading files >200 lines
- Even without `--allow-all-tools`, piping file content (242 lines / 8KB) into the prompt causes OOM with MAI but not with Haiku
- After consecutive copilot invocations, residual copilot processes (~274 MB each) sometimes linger, compounding memory pressure
- Several background services reduce available memory but ~5.5 GB remains — which should be sufficient

## Expected Behavior
MAI-Code-1-Flash should have similar or lower memory footprint compared to Claude Haiku, given that it is positioned as a lightweight/fast model.

## Workaround
Using `claude-haiku-4.5` or `claude-sonnet-4.6` instead of MAI for code review tasks.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Reproduce the reported `copilot -p` commands on the stated Ubuntu environment, comparing `mai-code-1-flash-internal` with `claude-haiku-4.5` while monitoring memory and residual processes. Done means determining whether the model's memory use or lingering processes is the cause, and documenting the expected requirement or a confirmed CLI bug.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, node.js, shell
Domain
cli, operating-systems, performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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