Local sandbox 'Authenticate gh' silently uses an unrelated cached fine-grained PAT instead of active gh OAuth session, with no visibility into which credential is chosen
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Description
Describe the bug
With local sandboxing enabled (/sandbox enable) and the "Authenticate gh" auth setting on (default), the GH_TOKEN exported into the sandboxed environment did not correspond to my active gh session.
gh auth status(run on the host, outside the sandbox) showed I was logged in via the OAuth device flow, with agho_...token and scopesadmin:public_key,gist,read:org,repo— i.e. full private repo access.- Inside a Copilot CLI sandboxed session,
echo $GH_TOKEN/gh repo list <org> --visibility privateshowed access to only one private repository in my org, via a token in the fine-grained PAT format (github_pat_...). - After investigating, I found the actual token being used: an old fine-grained PAT I had created previously and scoped intentionally to a single, unrelated repository (not the repo I was actively working in).
- This PAT is neither the active
gh auth statusOAuth session (keyring-storedgho_token) nor the GitHub Appghu_token found in~/.config/github-copilot/auth.db.
I was unable to determine, from inside a Copilot CLI session or from documentation, why this specific cached PAT was selected over my active OAuth login, or where exactly it was being read from/cached. The lack of visibility made this very difficult to diagnose — I only found the answer by manually checking GitHub's "Active tokens" org admin page and recognizing a token I had created weeks earlier for unrelated purposes.
Expected behavior
When "Authenticate gh" is enabled for the local sandbox, I would expect one of the following:
- The sandbox's
GH_TOKENto be derived from the currently activegh auth statusaccount/session (respectinggh auth switch), not from some other cached credential, OR - If Copilot CLI intentionally uses a different/cached credential for the sandbox (e.g. a previously-supplied
GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKENenv var), this should be clearly surfaced to the user — e.g. via/sandboxor/env, showing which token/account is being exported into the sandbox and why, without requiring the user to manually diff PAT prefixes and check GitHub's org "Active tokens" page.
Reproduction steps
- Log in normally via
gh auth login(OAuth device flow), confirm withgh auth statusthat the active session has broadreposcope. - Separately, at some earlier point, create (or have previously created) a fine-grained PAT scoped to only one specific repository, for an unrelated purpose.
- Launch
copilot, enable local sandboxing (/experimental onif needed, then/sandbox enable), leave "Authenticate gh" at its default (on). - Inside the Copilot CLI session, ask the agent to run
gh repo list <org> --visibility privateor inspect$GH_TOKEN. - Observe that the token exported into the sandbox matches the old, narrowly-scoped fine-grained PAT from step 2 — not the active OAuth session from step 1 — with no indication in the CLI of which credential was selected or why.
Additional context
/envand/sandboxdo not currently surface which specific token/account was selected forGH_TOKENin the sandbox, making this essentially undiagnosable without manual, external investigation (comparing token prefixes, checking org "Active tokens" pages, etc.).- Docs reference (
Configuring local sandbox settings→ Auth tab): "Authenticate gh: Export GH_TOKEN so that GitHub CLI ... works inside the sandbox without reaching its stored credentials (configuration directory or OS keychain), which the sandbox blocks." This explains that a substitute token is exported, but not how that substitute is selected when multiple credentials (OAuth session, GitHub App ghu_ token, cached fine-grained PATs) exist on the host. - Related open issues that touch on adjacent auth-scoping concerns: #1460 (no scoped-auth workflow vs
gh auth login), #953 (default OAuth grants excessive scope).
Suggested improvement
- Add a way to inspect, from within a session (e.g.
/sandboxAuth tab or/env), exactly which token/account is currently selected for sandboxedgh/git operations, including its origin (activegh auth statussession vs. a manually-setGH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKENenv var vs. some other cached credential) and its repository scope. - Consider making the sandboxed
GH_TOKENfollow the currently activegh auth statusaccount by default, rather than silently preferring a possibly-staleGH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKENenv var or other cached credential.
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
No implementation file or test is named. Start by tracing the local-sandbox authentication path behind /sandbox enable, the /env and sandbox Auth views, and the documented Authenticate gh setting; compare credential selection with gh auth status and ~/.config/github-copilot/auth.db. Done means the selected credential's origin and scope are visible and the reported selection behavior is covered by a regression test.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- github, shell
- Domain
- authentication, cli, security
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100