Non-actionable response and weak context continuity

Type: Bug

Summary: Non-actionable response and weak context continuity
Expected: Actionable response using prior chat context
Actual: Generic response requiring repeated prompts
Impact: Slower workflow, repeated clarification needed
Date/OS: 2026-07-22, Windows

Summary:
Copilot Chat failed to act on context-aware expectations and returned responses that were too generic, forcing repeated clarifications.

Environment:

App: Visual Studio Code
Feature: GitHub Copilot Chat
Date: 2026-07-22
OS: Windows
Workspace open: No workspace open
What I asked:

“you failed. read the conversation before data block”
“give number of records based on the year for column 'created on' for the data”
Follow-up reliability/escalation questions and request for feedback steps.
What I expected:

Better context handling after prior messages.
Direct execution-oriented help without unnecessary back-and-forth.
Stronger continuity across turns.
What happened instead:

Initial response after context was: “I don’t see a request yet…”
This felt misaligned with conversation context and required an additional correction prompt.
For the data request, Copilot provided query templates but could not provide actual counts because no dataset/table was available in session.
Impact:Extra prompts were needed to move forward.
Reduced trust in response reliability and context tracking.
Slower task completion.
Repro steps:

Open VS Code.
Open Copilot Chat.
Provide a context-heavy prompt sequence with strict behavior instructions.
Ask for an actionable result.
Observe occasional generic/non-actionable reply and need for re-prompting.
Frequency:

Sometimes (observed in this session)
Additional notes:

Copilot did later provide useful SQL/PostgreSQL/pandas snippets and clear escalation guidance.
Main issue is consistency and context-following on first response.

VS Code version: Code 1.125.0 (93cfdd489c3b228840d0f86ec77c3636277c93ea, 2026-06-15T22:24:03Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
Modes:

System Info

|Item|Value|
|---|---|
|CPUs|11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 @ 2.60GHz (8 x 2611)|
|GPU Status|2d_canvas: enabled
GPU0: VENDOR= 0x8086, DEVICE=0x9a49 [Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics], DRIVER_VENDOR=Intel, DRIVER_VERSION=32.0.101.6647 *ACTIVE*
GPU1: VENDOR= 0x1414, DEVICE=0x008c [Microsoft Basic Render Driver], DRIVER_VERSION=10.0.26100.8875
Machine model name:
Machine model version:
direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok
gpu_compositing: enabled
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
opengl: enabled_on
rasterization: enabled
raw_draw: disabled_off_ok
skia_graphite: disabled_off
trees_in_viz: disabled_off
video_decode: enabled
video_encode: enabled
webgl: enabled
webgpu: enabled
webnn: disabled_off|
|Load (avg)|undefined|
|Memory (System)|15.71GB (4.17GB free)|
|Process Argv|--crash-reporter-id 120f1857-bac6-4747-b500-563a88ec8fb3|
|Screen Reader|no|
|VM|0%|
Extensions (3)

Name|Identifier|Author|Version
---|---|---|---
GitHub Copilot for Azure|ms-azuretools.vscode-azure-github-copilot|ms-azuretools|1.0.201
Azure MCP Server|ms-azuretools.vscode-azure-mcp-server|ms-azuretools|2.0.43
Azure Resources|ms-azuretools.vscode-azureresourcegroups|ms-azuretools|0.12.4