github / github/copilot-cli

Runaway FileWatch host-event loop freezes TUI and grows debug log to 13 GB

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Description

Describe the bug

A long-running/resumed Copilot CLI session can enter a tight loop that emits:

[DEBUG] [rust:copilot_runtime::protocol::jsonrpc::engine] No connection accepted a host event {"kind":"FileWatch"}

Once the loop becomes continuous, the terminal UI stops responding while the
process consumes about two CPU cores and writes hundreds of KB/s to its debug
log.

In the affected process:

  • The final 10,000 log records were all the identical discarded FileWatch
    event.
  • Current CPU measured over five seconds was approximately 200%.
  • RSS was approximately 1.1 GB.
  • The process log had reached 13 GB and was growing at approximately 460 KB/s.
  • The process remained alive; this was not an OS OOM kill or terminal flow
    control pause.
  • The host had ample free memory, disk space, and inodes.
  • USE_TGREP=false was already effective. Startup telemetry contained
    disabled_reason: "use_tgrep_false", and no tgrep child was running.

This appears related to IDE integration, but I cannot yet prove that opening
VS Code is the sole trigger. The affected session logged IDE lock-file watcher
startup and was running in a workspace open in VS Code. Disabling IDE
auto-connect prevented IDE discovery and the continuing event storm in a
controlled fresh-session test.

This differs from #3701: there was no repeated MCP server spawning or leaked
MCP process tree. The runaway activity was inside the Copilot process's
FileWatch/JSON-RPC event path.

Affected version
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.81-9

The no-IDE control test was also run after auto-update installed 1.0.81-11.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

The exact transition into the continuous loop is not yet deterministic, but
this is the observed setup:

  1. Open a large multi-repository workspace in VS Code.
  2. Start Copilot CLI from that workspace root with debug logging enabled.
  3. Resume and continue using a long-lived session.
  4. Leave IDE auto-connect enabled (the default).
  5. The session eventually becomes unresponsive while its log continuously
    prints the discarded FileWatch event shown above.

Useful checks while the failure is active:

ps -p <pid> -o pid,pcpu,pmem,rss,nlwp,stat,wchan,cmd
tail -n 10000 ~/.copilot/logs/process-*.log |
  sed -E 's/^[0-9TZ:.-]+ \[[A-Z]+\] \[[^]]+\] //' |
  sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head

The affected process showed:

10000 No connection accepted a host event {"kind":"FileWatch"}
Controlled comparison

I configured:

{
  "ide": {
    "autoConnect": false
  }
}

Then started a fresh CLI session from the same workspace while VS Code remained
open. In that session:

  • There were no IDE lock watcher, IDE discovery, or ide_connected records.
  • The process had no inotify watch on ~/.copilot/ide.
  • Only five FileWatch records appeared during startup.
  • Log growth then stopped, current CPU dropped to approximately 1%, and the TUI
    remained responsive.

For comparison, using the invalid dotted JSON key
"ide.autoConnect": false produced a settings warning, started the IDE lock
watcher, detected VS Code, and connected to the IDE. The nested object shown
above is required.

Expected behavior
  • FileWatch events should be consumed, coalesced, debounced, or dropped without
    entering an unbounded CPU/logging loop.
  • A disconnected/uninterested host-event consumer should not cause every
    filesystem event to be logged indefinitely.
  • IDE lock-file activity should not starve terminal input or rendering.
  • Debug logging should be rate-limited for repeated identical events.
Additional context
  • OS: WSL2 Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
  • Architecture: ARM64
  • Terminal: VS Code integrated terminal
  • Workspace root contained multiple repositories.
  • Session indexing reported SESSION_INDEXING=true.
  • tgrep was disabled with USE_TGREP=false.
  • The affected process had two inotify descriptors resolving to the resumed
    session's own ~/.copilot/session-state/<session>/ and research/
    directories. The first FileWatch records also appeared before the log line
    that started the IDE lock-file watcher, so IDE auto-connect may be an
    amplifier or trigger rather than the underlying event source.
  • Another session from the same environment previously accumulated a 2 GB log
    and approximately 4 GB RSS with large bursts of the same FileWatch message,
    but later became idle instead of remaining in the tight loop.

Workaround:

{
  "ide": {
    "autoConnect": false
  }
}

Restart Copilot CLI after applying the setting. Manual /ide connection
remains available.

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 FileWatch host-event path through the runtime's JSON-RPC handling and the IDE auto-connect flow; the issue does not name specific source files or tests. Reproduce with debug logging using the supplied workspace and autoConnect settings, then verify that repeated discarded events no longer freeze the TUI or cause unbounded CPU and log growth.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, shell, vscode
Domain
cli, performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
32/100

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