github / github/copilot-cli

WSL2: Copilot CLI 1.0.82 consumes ~31 GB RSS and ~57% CPU

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area:platform-linux
Dominant language
Shell
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Description

Describe the bug

I'm running copilot cli on WSL.
When running a the model Claud Opus 5 on High Effort on a long running session, at about 47% context usage, and with an agent similar to the thinking-beast-mode the cpu consumption went up and the memory consumption exhausted the available.

Can be related with https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/2208?

Affected version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.82.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Prompted to produce python scripts to perform statistical analysis on text data. Requested a production ready program.

Expected behavior

No response

Additional context

wsl --version

WSL version: 2.7.12.0
Kernel version: 6.18.33.2-2
WSLg version: 1.0.73.2
MSRDC version: 1.2.7214
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.26200.9106

lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Release:        26.04
Codename:       resolute

copilot --version

GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.82.

cat /proc/21178/status | egrep 'VmRSS|VmSize'

VmSize: 55347188 kB
VmRSS:  30937176 kB

ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -20

USER         PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
<redacted>    21178 57.3 94.9 55348468 30936924 pts/2 Sl+ 12:24  93:52 /home/<redacted>/.local/bin/copilot

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 reproducing a long-running Copilot CLI session in WSL2 with the reported version, model, effort level, and agent style, while monitoring /proc/21178/status and ps output. Compare memory and CPU growth against the reported 31 GB RSS and 57% CPU, then confirm that the resource exhaustion is resolved.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, shell, ubuntu
Domain
cli, operating-systems, performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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