[workflow-health] P1: Copilot engine silent startup crash — 35+ hours, all Copilot workflows affected

[github-actions]

Problem

All Copilot-engine workflows are failing with a silent startup crash since approximately Apr 8, 01:02 UTC (35+ hours). The Copilot CLI binary starts, runs for ~1-2 seconds, then exits with code 1 producing zero bytes of output.

Diagnostic Pattern

[copilot-driver] attempt 1: spawning: /usr/local/bin/copilot ...
[copilot-driver] attempt 1: process started (pid=152)
[copilot-driver] attempt 1: process exit event exitCode=1
[copilot-driver] attempt 1: process closed exitCode=1 duration=1s stdout=0B stderr=0B hasOutput=false
[copilot-driver] attempt 1: no output produced — not retrying (possible causes: binary not found, permission denied, auth failure, or silent startup crash)
[copilot-driver] done: exitCode=1 totalDuration=1s

Confirmed Affected Workflows

Workflow	Issue	Latest Failure
Delight	#25290	Apr 9 12:08 UTC
Auto-Triage Issues	#25215	Apr 9 12:04 UTC
Dead Code Removal Agent	#25287	Apr 9 12:03 UTC
Test Quality Sentinel	#25396	6/6 runs Apr 8-9
Smoke Copilot	#25374	2/2 runs Apr 8-9
Daily Fact About gh-aw	#25276	Apr 9 11:30 UTC
Architecture Diagram Generator	#25260	Apr 8-9
Dev	#25261	Apr 8-9
CI Cleaner	#25257	Apr 8-9
+ 11 more	various	Apr 8-9

Total individual failure issues open: 20+

Timeline

• Apr 8 01:02 UTC: First observed failures
• Apr 9 05:00 UTC: CLI proxy policy fix merged (unrelated to this issue)
• Apr 9 12:08 UTC: Still failing (confirmed in this run)

Impact

• All Copilot-engine workflows (estimated 124 workflows)
• Binary is accessible (pre-flight check passes) but crashes immediately on startup
• No output means no debugging info from the Copilot CLI itself
• isCAPIError400=false — not an API 400 error

Likely Root Cause

The nodeVersion=v20.20.2 runtime hosts the Copilot CLI binary (/usr/local/bin/copilot). Possible causes:

1. Copilot CLI version regression — version 1.0.21 (merged Apr 8) may have a startup bug
2. Auth token initialization failure — silent if the auth check happens before any logging
3. Missing env var or config that the new version requires

Investigation Steps

1. Check if Copilot CLI version changed around Apr 8 (look at the copilot binary in the runner image)
2. Compare copilot --version output before/after Apr 8
3. Run copilot directly in a debug workflow to capture stderr
4. Check if GITHUB_TOKEN env var format changed
5. Review Copilot CLI changelog for 1.0.21

References

• Example failed run: §24189284890 (Delight, Apr 9)
• Smoke test failures: §24156448306
• Test Quality Sentinel pattern (6 runs): [aw] Test Quality Sentinel failed #25396

Detected by Workflow Health Manager meta-orchestrator.

Note

🔒 Integrity filter blocked 11 items

The following items were blocked because they don't meet the GitHub integrity level.

• #25224 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #19099 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #24961 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #25457 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #25101 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #20997 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #22929 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #17969 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #25439 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #23740 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
• #24930 search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".

To allow these resources, lower min-integrity in your GitHub frontmatter:

tools:
  github:
    min-integrity: approved  # merged | approved | unapproved | none

Generated by Workflow Health Manager - Meta-Orchestrator · ● 5.8M · ◷

• expires on Apr 10, 2026, 12:22 PM UTC

[github-actions]

🍪 Issue Monster has assigned this to Copilot!

I've identified this issue as a good candidate for automated resolution and assigned it to the Copilot coding agent.

The Copilot coding agent will analyze the issue and create a pull request with the fix.

Om nom nom! 🍪

🍪 Om nom nom by Issue Monster · ● 298.7K · ◷