BYOK completions wire API fails with reasoning_content in streaming deltas (transient API error, 5 retries)
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Description
Describe the bug
When using GitHub Copilot CLI with a BYOK provider that emits reasoning_content in streaming chat completion deltas (the completions wire API), Copilot reports "Request failed due to a transient API error. Retrying..." and retries 5 times before giving up — even though the provider returns HTTP 200 OK with valid SSE chunks.
The provider's streaming response includes the reasoning_content field in delta chunks (a de-facto standard extension used by reasoning models like DeepSeek, GLM, Qwen3, and surfaced via MLX servers like oMLX and Astronomical). Copilot's OpenAI completions client does not parse reasoning_content in the streaming delta, causing it to treat the response as a parse failure.
Affected version
1.0.73 (Copilot CLI), macOS, darwin-arm64
Steps to reproduce
- Run a local OpenAI-compatible server that emits
reasoning_contentin streaming deltas for a reasoning model (e.g., Astronomical servingmlx-community/Ornith-1.0-35B-OptiQ-4bit, a Qwen-architecture reasoning model). - Configure BYOK:
export COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:6732/v1 export COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=openai export COPILOT_PROVIDER_WIRE_API=completions export COPILOT_MODEL=mlx-community/Ornith-1.0-35B-OptiQ-4bit - Launch
copilotand send any message (e.g.,2+2?). - Observe: "Request failed due to a transient API error. Retrying..." repeats 5 times.
Expected behavior
Copilot CLI should parse reasoning_content in streaming delta chunks (as a reasoning delta) and surface it to the user — either via reasoning events or by ignoring it if reasoning display is not supported. It should not treat the response as a transient API error.
What Copilot actually sends (captured via proxy)
{
"model": "mlx-community/Ornith-1.0-35B-OptiQ-4bit",
"messages": [...],
"tools": [... 54 tools ...],
"stream": true,
"stream_options": {"include_usage": true}
}
What the provider returns
data: {"choices":[{"delta":{"role":"assistant"},"finish_reason":null}]}
data: {"choices":[{"delta":{"reasoning_content":"Here"},"finish_reason":null}]}
data: {"choices":[{"delta":{"reasoning_content":"'s"},"finish_reason":null}]}
...
data: {"choices":[{"delta":{"content":"4"},"finish_reason":null}]}
data: {"choices":[{"delta":{},"finish_reason":"stop"}],"usage":{...}}
data: [DONE]
The response is valid SSE with a proper [DONE] terminator and usage stats. HTTP status is 200. The only non-standard field is reasoning_content in the delta.
Why this is a Copilot bug, not a provider bug
-
reasoning_contentis a de-facto standard for reasoning models in the OpenAI-compatible ecosystem. It is recognized by models.dev ("interleaved": {"field": "reasoning_content"}) for models like GLM-5.1, GLM-5.2, and others. -
Other clients handle it fine. OpenCode's OpenAI chat protocol explicitly parses
delta.reasoning_contentand emits it as a reasoning delta event (packages/llm/src/protocols/openai-chat.tslines 419-420). OpenCode works perfectly with the same Astronomical provider. -
Other MLX servers emit it too. oMLX (
omlx/api/thinking.py,omlx/api/adapters/openai.py) and mlx-vlm both emitreasoning_contentin streaming deltas for reasoning models. This is the standard way to surfacestart_thinking...end_thinkingblocks in the OpenAI-compatible API. -
Related issue #3195 documents that Copilot CLI's reasoning handling for BYOK providers is incomplete — but that issue describes missing events, whereas this issue is more severe: the entire request fails and retries 5 times.
Proposed fix
Copilot CLI's OpenAI completions streaming parser should:
- Recognize
delta.reasoning_contentas a reasoning delta (not fail to parse it). - Emit it as a reasoning event (or silently ignore it if reasoning display is unsupported).
- Continue processing
delta.contentnormally.
At minimum, an unrecognized field in the delta object should not cause the entire response to be treated as a transient API error.
Additional context
- Copilot CLI version: 1.0.73
- BYOK provider: Astronomical (local MLX server, OpenAI-compatible at
http://127.0.0.1:6732/v1) - Model:
mlx-community/Ornith-1.0-35B-OptiQ-4bit(Qwen-architecture reasoning model) - Wire API:
completions(OpenAI Chat Completions at/v1/chat/completions) - The Anthropic wire type (
COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE=anthropic) does not have this issue because Copilot's Anthropic client natively handlesthinkingblocks. - Related: #3195 (reasoning events not triggered for BYOK), #3196 (Responses API reasoning events empty)
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the BYOK completions streaming path and reproduce the failure using the provided Astronomical or another SSE provider that emits reasoning_content. Compare the expected handling with packages/llm/src/protocols/openai-chat.ts, which the issue cites as a working reference. Done means reasoning_content no longer triggers retries, delta.content is still processed, and the response completes normally.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- api, backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 55/100