[Bug] Resumed session injects COLORTERM=truecolor and changes prompt highlight color
- Dominant language
- Shell
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Description
### Describe the bug
Resuming a Copilot CLI session can inject `COLORTERM=truecolor` into the spawned session process even though the launching shell and parent Copilot process have `COLORTERM` unset. This changes the submitted-user-prompt highlight from the terminal-palette green rendering to a gray truecolor background.
The result is inconsistent UI rendering between two Copilot sessions launched by the same WSL user, with the same global `theme: "github"` setting, the same Windows Terminal profile, and `TERM=xterm-256color`.
Process inspection showed:
- Direct launch from Bash:
- process is a direct child of the login shell;
- `COLORTERM` is unset;
- submitted user prompts have a green highlight.
- Resumed session:
- `copilot --allow-all --remote --resume` spawns a child Copilot process with `--session-id`;
- the shell and parent Copilot process have `COLORTERM` unset;
- the spawned child has `COLORTERM=truecolor`;
- submitted user prompts have a gray highlight.
There is no repository-local Copilot setting or Git color configuration explaining the difference. `copilot help config` exposes only whole-theme presets and no prompt-background setting.
### Affected version
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.76-3
The long-running resumed session was originally started on an earlier 1.0.76 build and survived CLI updates, but the current process/executable reports 1.0.76-3.
### Steps to reproduce the behavior
1. Open a fresh WSL2 Bash shell in Windows Terminal.
2. Confirm the variable is absent:
```bash
printenv COLORTERM
```
3. Launch Copilot directly:
```bash
copilot --allow-all --remote
```
4. Submit a prompt and observe the user-message highlight.
5. In another fresh shell with `COLORTERM` still unset, resume a saved session:
```bash
copilot --allow-all --remote --resume
```
6. Select a session, submit a prompt, and observe that the highlight color differs.
7. Inspect the processes:
```bash
ps -eo pid,ppid,args | grep '[c]opilot'
tr '\0' '\n' /environ | grep -E '^(TERM|COLORTERM|WT_SESSION)='
```
8. Observe that the resumed child has `COLORTERM=truecolor`, while its parent Copilot process and launching Bash shell do not.
### Expected behavior
Copilot CLI should preserve the launching terminal's color-capability environment consistently across direct, resumed, and restarted sessions.
A resumed child process should not inject or change `COLORTERM` relative to its launching shell/parent. With the same terminal and `theme` setting, submitted user prompts should render with the same highlight colors.
### Additional context
- OS: WSL2 Linux, x86_64
- Terminal: Windows Terminal
- Shell: Bash login shell
- `TERM=xterm-256color` in both sessions
- Same Windows Terminal profile ID in both sessions
- User setting: `"theme": "github"`
- No repository-local theme/config override found
- The only observed discriminator was `COLORTERM=truecolor` on the resumed child
Related open issues:
- #3591 — user prompt visual distinction/configuration
- #4292 — truecolor-related rendering differences
- #4212 — prompt/highlight rendering differs by terminal context
This report is narrower: it concerns Copilot CLI's resumed-session process launch changing `COLORTERM`, producing different rendering without any terminal, user, repository, or theme-setting change.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Reproduce direct and resumed launches in WSL2 Bash, then inspect the resumed child with ps and /proc//environ as described. Trace how the --session-id child is spawned and ensure it preserves the launching shell's COLORTERM state; done means direct, resumed, and restarted sessions render the same prompt highlight under the same terminal settings.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- bash, linux, shell
- Domain
- cli, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100