feat: add GitHub Copilot agent support to Rover CLI #233

fran · 2025-10-18T22:39:56Z

Changes

Introduced CopilotAgent class for GitHub Copilot integration
Enhanced CLI commands to check for Copilot installation
Updated agent creation logic to include Copilot
Added necessary environment variable checks and configurations for Copilot
Add COPILOT.md file with custom informatin about how use it.

Notes

I haven't integrated with gh copilot as copilot extension for gh does not allow -p argument aka no user prompt so , makes impossible integrate it with rover as it stop when detect a wait.
what can be integrated is copilot directly.

It is not clear to me what should have COPILOT.md file, the reason all other agents files are a copy of AGENTS.md file.

Closes #223

- Introduced CopilotAgent class for GitHub Copilot integration - Enhanced CLI commands to check for Copilot installation - Updated agent creation logic to include Copilot - Added necessary environment variable checks and configurations for Copilot

- Revised description to mention Copilot alongside existing agents - Updated features list to reflect the inclusion of Copilot - Added installation link for GitHub Copilot CLI

- Introduced a new COPILOT.md file providing comprehensive guidance for using the GitHub Copilot agent within the Rover workspace. - Included installation instructions, authentication methods, environment variables, usage examples, best practices, troubleshooting tips, and security considerations. - Enhanced documentation to support developers in effectively utilizing the Copilot agent for AI-powered code assistance.

ereslibre

This is amazing, thank you @fran!

Added some comments, this one seems to be the trickiest one in terms of authentication compared to the other agents.

packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

ereslibre · 2025-10-20T06:54:50Z

packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

+            try {
+              // Clean the response to extract JSON from various formats
+              let cleanedResult = result;
+
+              // Remove bullet points and other formatting characters from the start
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.replace(/^[●•*\-+]\s*/, '');
+
+              // Remove common conversational prefixes
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.replace(/^(I understand|Here's|Here is|The JSON|Response:|Answer:)\s*/i, '');
+
+              // Find JSON object in markdown code blocks (```json ... ```)
+              const jsonCodeBlockMatch = cleanedResult.match(/```json\s*([\s\S]*?)\s*```/);
+              if (jsonCodeBlockMatch) {
+                cleanedResult = jsonCodeBlockMatch[1].trim();
+              } else {
+                // Look for JSON object directly - find the first { and last }
+                const firstBrace = cleanedResult.indexOf('{');
+                const lastBrace = cleanedResult.lastIndexOf('}');
+                if (firstBrace !== -1 && lastBrace !== -1 && lastBrace > firstBrace) {
+                  cleanedResult = cleanedResult.substring(firstBrace, lastBrace + 1);
+                }
+              }
+
+              // Clean up whitespace and fix JSON formatting issues
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.trim();
+
+              // Fix common JSON formatting issues from Copilot's multiline responses
+              // First, handle newlines within JSON strings properly
+              // We need to be careful to only escape newlines that are inside string values
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.replace(/\n\s*/g, '\\n');
+
+              // Remove any remaining control characters that could break JSON parsing
+              // Keep only printable ASCII characters and essential JSON characters
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.replace(/[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x7F]/g, '');
+
+              // Additional cleanup for common formatting issues
+              cleanedResult = cleanedResult.replace(/\s+/g, ' '); // Normalize whitespace
+
+              const parsed = JSON.parse(cleanedResult);
+              return JSON.stringify(parsed);
+            } catch (jsonErr) {
+              // If JSON parsing fails, log the issue and return the raw result for parseJsonResponse to handle
+              console.error('Copilot JSON parsing failed:', jsonErr.message);
+              console.error('Cleaned result that failed to parse:', JSON.stringify(cleanedResult));
+              return result;
+            }


Do we need this despite being explicit in the prompt?

The main reason I added was I was getting a lot of errors due to copilot was returning formatted code and I don't see any flat to allow copilot to force to be a valid json output. Anyhow, with the change in the prompt where it was added "Nothing else" we may avoid the problem.
I'm playing a bit with it, I will get something tomorrow.

Thanks a lot for the effort @fran!

What I have tried

Find a flag for copilot to avoid some symbols, bullets points and formatting characters
I didn't find anything in Copilot cli doc.

Improve the prompt
I changed the current prompt specifying the symbols , bullets and characters to avoid but we have the same output.

add a parser to remove symbols, bullets and special characters.
I moved the code to json-parser.ts and keep it simple.

Thank you @fran! I think this will do for now. Just for reference, it seems they have an issue open regarding the JSON output: github/copilot-cli#52.

packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

ereslibre · 2025-10-20T07:15:37Z

packages/agent/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

+    // GitHub Copilot CLI config directory
+    const copilotConfigDir = join(process.env.HOME || '~', '.copilot');
+    if (existsSync(copilotConfigDir)) {
+      credentials.push({
+        path: copilotConfigDir,
+        description: 'GitHub Copilot CLI configuration directory',
+        required: true,
+      });
+    }


This one seems that will be closer to Claude's implementation since it also uses the Keychain in Mac OS X.

Mac OS X: security find-generic-password -s copilot-cli -w (or security find-generic-password -s gh:github.com -w if you logged in with gh auth): in this case we need to implement a similar logic to the one implemented with Claude, so that we read the token from the Mac OS X Keychain to a temporary file. What differs here from the Claude implementation is that on the container guest, it will expect /.copilot/config.json with .copilot_tokens."https://github.com:<username>", so there needs to be a bit of massaging of the mounted configuration.

Linux: /.copilot/config.json

packages/agent/src/lib/agents/index.ts

fran · 2025-10-20T08:01:27Z

thanks for review @ereslibre!. I will take care of all your comments.

Co-authored-by: Rafael Fernández López <ereslibre@gmail.com>

- Removed extensive JSON parsing logic from the Copilot agent, streamlining the response handling process. - Added bullet point and formatting character cleanup to the json-parser utility for improved consistency in JSON responses.

- Removed unnecessary bullet point and formatting character cleanup from the json-parser utility.

Angelmmiguel · 2025-11-03T11:56:18Z

packages/agent/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

+
+  getInstallCommand(): string {
+    // Install GitHub Copilot CLI standalone
+    return 'npm install -g @github/copilot';


Based on github/copilot-cli#287 (comment), we need to use a prerelease version to fix an error related to missing modules (sharp).

Suggested change

return 'npm install -g @github/copilot';

// @see https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/287#issuecomment-3434844899

return 'npm install -g @github/copilot@0.0.354-29';

fran added 3 commits October 19, 2025 00:34

docs: update CLI README to include GitHub Copilot in supported AI agents

0fec803

- Revised description to mention Copilot alongside existing agents - Updated features list to reflect the inclusion of Copilot - Added installation link for GitHub Copilot CLI

ereslibre reviewed Oct 20, 2025

View reviewed changes

fran and others added 6 commits October 20, 2025 20:53

Update packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

99ad983

Co-authored-by: Rafael Fernández López <ereslibre@gmail.com>

Update packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

ad33a2e

Co-authored-by: Rafael Fernández López <ereslibre@gmail.com>

Update packages/cli/src/lib/agents/copilot.ts

a29f6c1

Co-authored-by: Rafael Fernández López <ereslibre@gmail.com>

fix: keep alphabetical order when listing agents.

1f166dd

refactor: clean up JSON response parsing in json-parser utility

d7fe565

- Removed unnecessary bullet point and formatting character cleanup from the json-parser utility.

Angelmmiguel reviewed Nov 3, 2025

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feat: add GitHub Copilot agent support to Rover CLI #233

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fran commented Oct 18, 2025 •

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	return 'npm install -g @github/copilot';
	// @see https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/issues/287#issuecomment-3434844899
	return 'npm install -g @github/copilot@0.0.354-29';

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fran commented Oct 18, 2025 •

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