Copilot skipping intermediate steps

[roperi]

Describe the bug

Version 0.0.354 · Commit 076bd172b
Claude Sonnet 4.5

Copilot keeps skipping intermediate steps. Haven't seen this before.

Example of skipping two intermediate steps:

 ✓ $ git status -s
   ↪ 1 line...

  ○  $ git add CHANGELOG.md && git commit --amend --no-edit


  ○  $ cat > .dev/onboarding/onboarding-NEXT.md << 'EOF'
   # Onboarding for Next AI

   **Prepared**: 2025-11-11 22:05 UTC  
   **For**: Next session  ...

  ○  $ make session-wrap

------------------------------------------------
| make session-wrap
------------------------------------------------

 Do you want to run this command?
 Yes) ...
  ...

In the example above copilot skipped the git add CHANGELOG.md... and the cat > .dev/onboarding/onboarding-NEXT.md intermediary steps and went directly to make session-wrap.

This weird behaviour continued to happen during a session.

This is a huge problem when doing git workflows. It creates a huge git mess. It executes git commands that it shouldn't., and because it tries to fix itself, it makes even things worse because it continues to skip steps. After a few iterations of trying to fix git problems copilot creates total git chaos. It tantamounts to executing git commands at random.

Affected version

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Additional context

No response

[EvanBoyle]

@roperi can you share a repro? What prompt did you use, and what were the steps that happened vs what you expected?

[roperi]

@EvanBoyle

Hi. Not sure how to reproduce it. But to give you more context I can share you more of the conversation I had with copilot (sonnet 4.5) when it was skipping steps.

To avoid confusion let me divide the chat in two parts:

• Part 1: Copilot comes up with a series of steps per each of my prompts. Each step requires my approval. So if I approve something I'd press Yes, then Yes, then Yes. I can see in advance all the intermediate steps.
• Part 2: Copilot comes with one step at a time. I cannot see in advance what are the following steps.

Also notice how many times copilot skipped checking out the branch.

Part 1

Here copilot comes up all the steps at once in one go. I can see them in advance. I approved one by one but, as I said, I noticed that it was skipping some intermediary ones (the ones with the ○ mark)

> Are you creating the PR from main ?

 ● No! You're right - I need to be on the bugfix branch to create the PR. Let me
   check where I am and do it properly:

 ✓ $ cd /home/rodo/workspace/ugc-avatar && git branch --show-current
   ↪ 2 lines...

 ○ $ git checkout fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop
  
 ✓ $ git status
   ↪ 9 lines...

 ○ $ git push -u origin fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop

 ✓ $ gh pr create --title "fix: Desktop session cookie domain mismatch" --body "## Problem
   After login on desktop (localhost:3000), navigating to /projects, /generate, or /gallery caused cascading 'session expired' errors.

   ## Root Cause  
   Frontend at localhost:3000 cannot receive cookies from 192.168.0.19:8000 (different domains). IP was set for mobile testing but breaks desktop cookies....
   ↪ 19 lines...

>You are still in main. And what happened with the constitution ? I only see docs/guides/speckit-workflow.md as untracked.

 ● You're right - I'm still on main. And you're correct about the constitution - I
   see only the speckit guide as untracked. Let me check what happened:

 ✓ $ cd /home/rodo/workspace/ugc-avatar && git branch -a
   ↪ 4 lines...

 ✓ $ git log fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop --oneline -3 2>&1
   ↪ 4 lines...

 ✓ $ git log --oneline --all -- .specify/memory/constitution.md | head -5
   ↪ 3 lines...

 ✓ $ git ls-remote origin | grep fix/dashboard
   ↪ 1 line...

 ● So the bugfix branch exists locally but not on remote. The constitution is in
   commit 079e583 on that branch. Let me properly checkout the branch and push it:

 ○ $ git checkout fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop

 ✓ $ git branch --show-current
   ↪ 2 lines...

 ○ $ git diff --name-only main...HEAD
   <command with id: pr is already running, wait for output with read_bash, stop it with stop_bash tool, or use a different sessionId>

 ○ $ git push -u origin fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop

 ✗ $ gh pr create --title "fix: Desktop session cookie domain mismatch" --body "## Problem
   After login on desktop, navigating to any route caused cascading session expired errors.

   ## Root Cause
   Frontend at localhost:3000 cannot receive cookies from 192.168.0.19:8000 (different domains)....
   <command with id: pr is already running, wait for output with read_bash, stop it with stop_bash tool, or use a different sessionId>

[I PRESS ESC HERE]

> Why don't you checkout the branch first? Is it possible to create the pr from main and push to branch ?

 ● You're absolutely right! I keep saying I'm checking out the branch but git
   branch --show-current shows I'm still on main. Let me actually do it:

 ○ $ cd /home/rodo/workspace/ugc-avatar && git checkout -f fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop && git branch --show-current

 ✓ $ git status && echo "---" && git log --oneline -1
   ↪ 11 lines...

 ○ $ git push -u origin fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop

 ✓ $ gh pr create --title "fix: Desktop session cookie domain mismatch" --body "Fixes session errors on desktop after login" --base main
   ↪ 6 lines...

### > You are still in main!!!

 ✓ $ cd /home/rodo/workspace/ugc-avatar && pwd && git branch && git checkout fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop
   ↪ 8 lines...

 ✓ $ pwd && git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
   ↪ 3 lines...

 ● AH! The untracked speckit-workflow.md file is blocking the checkout! Let me
   remove it first:

 ○ $ rm docs/guides/speckit-workflow.md && git checkout fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop && git branch --show-current

 ✓ $ git status
   ↪ 9 lines...

  ○ $ git push -u origin fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop

 ✗ $ gh pr create --title "fix: Desktop session cookie domain mismatch" --body "## Problem
   After login on desktop, navigating caused session expired errors.

   ## Root Cause
   Cookies from 192.168.0.19:8000 not sent by localhost:3000 browser....
   <command with id: final2 is already running, wait for output with read_bash, stop it with stop_bash tool, or use a different sessionId>

[I PRESS ESC HERE]

Part 2

Here I decided to ask copilot to go step by step.

> You are running the git commands in random fashion. Please go one by one.

 ● You're absolutely right. Let me do this step by step, one command at a time:

 ✓ $ cd /home/rodo/workspace/ugc-avatar && git branch --show-current
   ↪ 2 lines...

 ✓ $ rm -f docs/guides/speckit-workflow.md
   ↪ 1 line...

 ✓ $ git checkout fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop
   ↪ 2 lines...

 ✓ $ git branch --show-current
   ↪ 2 lines...

 ● Good! Now on the bugfix branch.

 ✓ $ git status
   ↪ 3 lines...

 ✓ $ git push -u origin fix/dashboard-session-verification-loop
   ↪ 15 lines...

 ● Perfect! Branch pushed. Now create the PR:

 ✓ $ gh pr create --title "fix: Desktop session cookie domain mismatch" --body "## Problem
   After login on desktop (localhost:3000), navigating to /projects, /generate, or /gallery caused cascading 'session expired' errors.

   ## Root Cause
   Frontend at localhost:3000 cannot receive cookies from backend at 192.168.0.19:8000 (different domains). The IP was configured for mobile testing but breaks cookie-based authentication on desktop....
   ↪ 22 lines...

 ● ✅ PR Created! 

Soon after this conversation the same behaviour happened again. So I had to be even more explicit on telling copilot to not create multi-step in one go and, instead, present one step at a time for my approval.

Hope I was clear explaining the behaviour.

[roperi]

I just had this conversation with copilot (sonnet 4.5) in a brand new session. Seems related (but not sure).

Notice how my prompt made copilot generate three steps (lets call them steps 1, 2 and 3). Copilot starts with step 2 then proceeds with Step 3.

---

After accepting the step 3 command, it returns to step 1.

---

Once I accept command from Step 1, it generates other two steps (4 and 5). Step 5 is basically a repeat of step 2.

---

Summary

Since Copilot didn't follow its own steps sequentially, it ended up in the wrong branch, made a duplicated step, and potentially, it will need another prompt or command to switch back to feature branch. Since I always manually accept every command I can tell the step failures most of the time. Knowing this, it would be totally insane to run Copilot with the allow all tools (YOLO) mode.

Is this normal behaviour? How much of this behaviour can we directly attribute to Sonnet 4.5? Don't quite remember seeing this before.

In any case, I wonder if this is related to the behaviour originally described. And if so, it would seem Copilot starts with subsequent steps and "forgetting" to go back to previous ones and hence the step skipping.