github / github/copilot-cli

Subagent started with unsupported model fails the whole session

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area:agents area:models
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

Describe the bug

In a long running agent session on autopilot (~2 hours), with plenty use of subagents, the main agent was Opus 5, but started gemini-3.6-flash when building and executing tasks. Later during that same autopilot session gemini-3.6-flash was no longer supported. The main agent attempts to launch gemini-3.6-flash agent again, which results in this error:

Execution failed: CAPIError: 400 The requested model is not supported.

This breaks the entire session and the main agent stops. Instead the main agent should have seen that error, been able to react on it and try to find a different model it could use (e.g. Haiku, GPT Luna), and launch the subagent

Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.79.

Steps to reproduce the behavior
  1. Have a session running where you instruct the main agent to launch subagents using a model that you are going to retract from the pool of models
  2. On your side, change which models are supported to ban a model that you made the session use
  3. See the subagent fail and the main agent fail together
Expected behavior

The main agent should have seen that error, been able to react on it and try to find a different model it could use (e.g. Haiku, GPT Luna), and launch the subagent

Additional context

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how the CLI launches subagents and propagates model execution errors. No file or test is named, so locate the session and subagent error-handling entry points first; done means an unsupported subagent model failure no longer terminates the main session and can be handled for another model.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

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

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