view tool rejects a normal 8.6 KB file as too large to read at once
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Description
Describe the bug
The built-in view tool (shown as Read in the VS Code UI) reports File too large to read at once (8.6 KB) when asked to read a small, ordinary multiline Markdown file. This appears to be a false-positive size warning and makes normal full-file inspection unnecessarily cumbersome.
This is not the large single-line JSON or custom-tool-output case. The file is a regular Markdown document and is approximately 8.6 KB.
Affected version
Unknown - encountered in the Copilot CLI runtime integrated with VS Code.
Steps to reproduce the behavior
- Use the Copilot CLI runtime in VS Code on Windows.
- Ask the agent to read a normal multiline Markdown file of approximately 8.6 KB.
- Allow the built-in
view/Readtool to read the file without specifying a range. - Observe the
File too large to read at once (8.6 KB)warning instead of the file contents.
Expected behavior
A normal file of this size should be read successfully in full. If a size threshold is required, the threshold should be consistent, documented, and should not report ordinary small files as too large without a clear reason.
Additional context
- OS: Windows 11
- Host: Visual Studio Code
- Tool: built-in
view/Read - File type: regular Markdown, approximately 8.6 KB
- The warning recommends using
view_range, even though the file is small enough that a full read would normally be expected. - This report is about the
viewtool's full-file size handling, not Azure DevOps or the repository being inspected.
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
Locate the built-in view/Read implementation and the full-file size check, then reproduce it with an approximately 8.6 KB multiline Markdown file in the Windows and VS Code setup described. Trace why this normal file is rejected; done means the file reads in full without the false-positive warning while genuinely oversized or single-line inputs retain appropriate handling.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- shell, vscode
- Domain
- cli, tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100