github / github/copilot-cli

Issues and Pull Requests tabs display as inactive/greyed out (experimental mode)

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Description

### Describe the bug

I'm using github copilot cli with `experimental mode` enabled. I see the `Issues` and `Pull Requests` tabs in the interface but they are always greyed out regardless of the status of the current repo and branch. Here are details that might help:

* Copilot CLI version: 1.0.68
* Platform: Ubuntu (within WSL)
* Experimental mode: enabled
* gh  CLI working: yes (issues and PRs listed successfully)
* Tabs configuration: enabled
* 2 github accounts configured (personal and work). Git and SSH have been configured to work with each separately:
```ini
# ~/.gitconfig
[url "git@github.com:"]
insteadOf = "https://github.com"

[url "work-ssh-alias:work-gh-org/"]
insteadOf = git@github.com:work-gh-org/
```
```ssh-config
# ~/.ssh/config
Host work-ssh-alias
User git
HostName github.com
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_work_key
```
* `gh` cli is always be setup to auth against the correct account when working within a repo and works as expected when listing issues and PRs

### Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.68.

### Steps to reproduce the behavior

_No response_

### Expected behavior

I expect to see the Issues and PRs tabs active when copilot is within a github repo.

### Additional context

Additional context generated via copilot-cli when attempting to debug the issue:

----

Environment:

• Copilot CLI version: 1.0.68
• Platform: Linux
• Experimental mode: enabled

Issue:
The Issues and Pull Requests tabs display as inactive (greyed out) in the experimental tabbed interface, despite the feature being properly configured and functional.

Verification Steps Completed:

• ✅ Tabs are enabled in  ~/.copilot/settings.json  ( "enabled": true )
• ✅ Running Copilot CLI inside a valid Git repository with remote on GitHub
• ✅  gh  CLI is authenticated and can successfully list issues:  gh issue list -R /  returns open issues
• ✅  gh  CLI can successfully list pull requests:  gh pr list -R /  returns open pull requests
• ✅ Correct GitHub account is set as active with appropriate token scopes ( repo ,  read:org ,  workflow )
• ✅ Restarting the Copilot CLI session does not resolve the issue

Expected Behavior:
The Issues and Pull Requests tabs should be active and allow browsing repository issues and PRs, as documented in the Copilot CLI help.

Actual Behavior:
The tabs remain inactive/greyed out and appear non-functional, even though the underlying  gh  CLI infrastructure is working correctly and can retrieve the data that would populate these tabs.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with ~/.copilot/settings.json and reproduce the experimental tabbed interface inside a GitHub repository; verify the reported `gh issue list` and `gh pr list` commands against the current repo and account. The payload names no source file or test, so trace the CLI entry point that controls tab availability and confirm the tabs become active in a valid repository.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
github, shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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