github / github/copilot-cli

Allow use of system installed Github CLI instead of the bundled installaion (gh.exe)

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area:configuration area:installation
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve

Resolve the hard dependency on the bundled Github CLI (gh.exe) by allowing using the system installation

Proposed solution

The current version of copilot app had a hard dependency on the bundled Github CLI (gh.exe).
Unlike copilot.exe and git.exe, there is no environment variable that allow user to override using a system installation.

The result is that, in a company environment that has strict control on where executable can be launched, gh.exe cannot be launched at all.

In an earlier version of copilot app, like 1.0.16, the copilot app still can work fine without major loss of functionality.

With the latest version of copilot app, like 1.1.6, for some reason, I can see toolcall could also result in attempt to trigger gh.exe, and this has no way no disable through a global copilot instruction (such as "do not use gh.exe at all).
Currently, if this happens, under my company environment, it will be caught by our sercutity app and result in an error popup saying something similar to "you have no permission to run gh.exe..." and this cause the copilot app itself stuck in the mid of the task, until I close that popup. (and it will retry opening that gh.exe, which cause this to loop over and over again)

I will expect two things, either:

  1. Allow copilot to run without launching gh.exe (Im not sure why there is such dependency even my task doesn't need talk to github at all. Maybe auth? but this should be done through copilot-cli already?)
  2. Allow copilot to read an environment variable to use that gh.exe installation, instead of the bundle one - similar to COPILOT_CLI_PATH. I think this should be the way to go.

Currently, because of this issue, I need to keep myself on a very old version of copilot app. Otherwise, it is completely unusable in my company's environment.

Example prompts or workflows

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Additional context

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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 the existing COPILOT_CLI_PATH handling and the paths that launch the bundled gh.exe. Reproduce the company-restricted workflow, then verify that a configured system GitHub CLI is used or that tasks not needing GitHub can proceed without repeatedly launching gh.exe.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
github, shell
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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