Canvas open_canvas arguments corrupted by CLI — JSON-RPC serialization bug
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Shell
- Stars
- 11.2k
- Forks
- 1.9k
- Avg merge
- 14h 16m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 6
Description
Describe the bug
The CLI corrupts JSON-RPC arguments when dispatching tool calls to canvas extensions. The model's parsed arguments are concatenated with a trailing }{} suffix, causing malformed JSON. For open_canvas, the truncation happens mid-value producing "Unexpected end of JSON input" errors. The extension never receives any request.
This is reproducible in every session, not just with canvas extensions — list_canvas_capabilities, extensions_manage, and other tools also receive corrupted arguments.
Affected version
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.82
Steps to reproduce the behavior
- Install any canvas extension (e.g.,
session-md-reader) in~/.copilot/extensions/ - Start a session and ask Copilot to open the canvas, or trigger any tool call that passes arguments with nested JSON (e.g.,
open_canvas) - Observe the tool call fails with "Unexpected end of JSON input" and
wasSyntaxError: true
Live reproduction in this session (CLI v1.0.82):
# open_canvas — arguments truncated mid-value:
The arguments for the tool call 'open_canvas' were not valid JSON.
Arguments: {"canvasId": "session-md-reader", "input": .
JSON parse error: Unexpected end of JSON input
# list_canvas_capabilities — trailing }{} appended:
The arguments for the tool call 'list_canvas_capabilities' were not valid JSON.
Arguments: {"canvasId": "session-md-reader"}{}.
JSON parse error: Unexpected non-whitespace character after JSON at position 33
# edit — trailing }{} appended:
The arguments for the tool call 'edit' were not valid JSON.
Arguments: {}{}.
JSON parse error: Unexpected non-whitespace character after JSON at position 2
# extensions_manage — trailing }{} appended:
The arguments for the tool call 'extensions_manage' were not valid JSON.
Arguments: {"operation": "inspect", "name": "session-md-reader"}{}.
JSON parse error: Unexpected non-whitespace character after JSON at position 53
Session events log evidence (session 96897afc-a61a-4dc0-8438-12630294f8bd):
| Turn | Tool | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | open_canvas |
success: false, "Unexpected end of JSON input", wasSyntaxError: true |
| 1 | open_canvas (retry) |
Same error |
| 2 | list_canvas_capabilities |
✅ Success (no complex arguments needed) |
| 3 | open_canvas (with extra param) |
Same error |
The toolRequests in the assistant message shows "arguments":{} even though the model correctly outputs <parameter=input>{"sessionUuid": ...} in markdown. The CLI's markdown-to-JSON parser fails to extract the parameter values.
Expected behavior
Tool call arguments should be correctly serialized to valid JSON and dispatched to the extension via JSON-RPC. The extension should receive the full arguments object (e.g., {"canvasId": "session-md-reader", "instanceId": "session-md-reader-96897afc", "input": {"sessionUuid": "..."}}).
Additional context
- Extension logs: The extension shows only
=== ready ===— it never receives any requests because the CLI fails before dispatching. - Extension health: The extension is correctly implemented (valid
inputSchema,requestCanvasRenderer: true, properopenhandler returning{url, title, status}). Verified by/extensions manageshowing it as running. - Reproducibility: 100% reproducible. The bug affects all tools that pass arguments, not just canvas tools.
- Model used: mimo-v2.5 (tool calls output in markdown
<tool_call>format) - OS: Windows 11 (x86_64), PowerShell 7
- Terminal: Windows Terminal
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
Start by reproducing the failure with nested JSON tool arguments and trace the CLI's markdown-to-JSON parser through toolRequests construction and JSON-RPC dispatch. Compare the parsed arguments with the model's markdown output and verify that open_canvas, edit, and extensions_manage reach the extension with one complete valid JSON object.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- json, markdown, shell
- Domain
- api, cli
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100