Copilot: "Could not build codebase semantic index" on macOS for GitLab repo (works on Windows)

[starlight173]

Description

I'm encountering an issue with GitHub Copilot on macOS where it fails to build the semantic index for a repository hosted on GitLab. The same repository works correctly on Windows under identical conditions.

Error message:

Could not build codebase semantic index. No indexable repos found and support for indexing non-GitHub repos is not available

Log:

2026-04-30 09:41:22.847 [info] [GitExtensionServiceImpl] Initializing Git extension service.
2026-04-30 09:41:22.864 [info] Logged in as starlight173
2026-04-30 09:41:22.866 [info] Using the Electron fetcher.
2026-04-30 09:41:22.875 [info] [GitExtensionServiceImpl] Successfully activated the vscode.git extension.
2026-04-30 09:41:22.875 [info] [GitExtensionServiceImpl] Enablement state of the vscode.git extension: true.
2026-04-30 09:41:22.875 [info] [GitExtensionServiceImpl] Successfully registered Git commit message provider.
2026-04-30 09:41:23.108 [info] ConversationFeature: Waiting for copilot token to activate conversation feature
2026-04-30 09:41:23.410 [info] [CopilotCLI] OpenTelemetry enabled: exporter=file, source=github.copilot
2026-04-30 09:41:23.481 [info] [CopilotCLI] MCP server started. Lock file: /Users/starlight173/.copilot/ide/688929db-b4cb-4092-981d-28f03c0d185c.lock
2026-04-30 09:41:23.481 [info] [CopilotCLI] Server URI: unix:/var/folders/b4/md1lswzs6ss_zy0hflllqj1h0000gn/T/mcp-yMfimD/mcp.sock#%2Fmcp
2026-04-30 09:41:23.599 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 436.949167ms
2026-04-30 09:41:23.815 [info] Got Copilot token for starlight173
2026-04-30 09:41:23.815 [info] Copilot Chat: 0.46.2, VS Code: 1.118.1
2026-04-30 09:41:23.818 [info] [context keys] Setting context key: github.copilot-chat.activated
2026-04-30 09:41:23.819 [info] activationBlocker from 'languageModelAccess' took for 723ms
2026-04-30 09:41:23.842 [info] AuthenticationService: firing onDidAuthenticationChange from handleAuthChangeEvent. Has token: true
2026-04-30 09:41:23.842 [info] copilot token sku: yearly_subscriber_quota
2026-04-30 09:41:23.842 [info] ConversationFeature: Activating contributions
2026-04-30 09:41:23.842 [info] GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github extension is not yet activated.
2026-04-30 09:41:23.849 [info] Registering default platform agent...
2026-04-30 09:41:23.849 [info] ConversationFeature: onDidAuthenticationChange has token: true
2026-04-30 09:41:23.849 [info] [code-referencing] Public code references are enabled.
2026-04-30 09:41:23.850 [info] activationBlocker from 'conversationFeature' took for 756ms
2026-04-30 09:41:23.857 [info] GithubAvailableEmbeddingTypesManager: Got embeddings. Primary: metis-1024-I16-Binary. Deprecated: 
2026-04-30 09:41:23.858 [info] WorkspaceChunkSearchService: using embedding type metis-1024-I16-Binary
2026-04-30 09:41:23.867 [info] BYOK: Copilot Chat known models list fetched successfully.
2026-04-30 09:41:23.868 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 5.123957999999902ms
2026-04-30 09:41:23.875 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 2.222082999999884ms
2026-04-30 09:41:24.784 [info] Fetched model metadata in 1683ms 46f28c3f-2ba4-4456-8045-8c7b6ca89c48
2026-04-30 09:41:25.109 [info] Latest entry: ccreq:latest.copilotmd
2026-04-30 09:41:25.110 [info] ccreq:d0f72a6c.copilotmd | markdown
2026-04-30 09:49:25.936 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 6.634667000034824ms
2026-04-30 09:49:28.885 [info] message 0 returned. finish reason: [stop]
2026-04-30 09:49:28.887 [info] request done: requestId: [f7d972a0-8844-4f7e-8206-7c9c69e48749] model deployment ID: []
2026-04-30 09:49:28.888 [info] ccreq:9eaa51c1.copilotmd | success | gpt-4o-mini -> gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 | 1481ms | [copilotLanguageModelWrapper]
2026-04-30 09:49:28.888 [info] message 0 returned. finish reason: [stop]
2026-04-30 09:49:28.890 [info] request done: requestId: [0a9762d5-67e4-4e64-b878-47639ce92642] model deployment ID: []
2026-04-30 09:49:28.890 [info] ccreq:fe914259.copilotmd | success | gpt-4o-mini -> gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18 | 1481ms | [copilotLanguageModelWrapper]
2026-04-30 09:51:44.389 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 3.979291999945417ms
2026-04-30 09:53:40.939 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 2.3684590000193566ms

---

Environment

macOS (failing):

• OS: macOS 15.5.7
• VS Code: Version 1.118.1
• GitHub Copilot: (latest extension version)
• Repo: GitLab repository (cloned locally)

Windows (working):

• OS: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 (21H2, Build 19044)
• VS Code: Version 1.118.1
• GitHub Copilot: Same extension version
• Repo: Same GitLab repository, same branch

---

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone a GitLab repository locally on macOS
2. Open the project in VS Code
3. Ensure GitHub Copilot is enabled
4. Wait for indexing / trigger features requiring semantic index
5. Observe the error

---

Expected Behavior

Copilot should successfully build the semantic index for the repository, regardless of hosting provider (GitLab), as it does on Windows.

---

Actual Behavior

Copilot fails with:

Could not build codebase semantic index. No indexable repos found and support for indexing non-GitHub repos is not available

---

Additional Notes

• The repository is hosted on GitLab (not GitHub)
• The repo is a valid Git repository and works normally on Windows
• Authentication is working correctly (Copilot suggestions still function)
• Issue appears specific to semantic indexing on macOS
• The error message suggests non-GitHub repos are unsupported, but this restriction does not seem enforced on Windows

---

Questions

• Is semantic indexing officially unsupported for GitLab repositories?
• If so, why does it work on Windows but not macOS?
• Is there a configuration or workaround to enable indexing for non-GitHub repos on macOS?

[suside]

I have the same error on Ubuntu 26.04 with gitlab repo, log:

2026-04-30 12:15:30.661 [trace] RepoTracker.TriggerRemoteIndexing(manual).started
2026-04-30 12:15:30.661 [trace] CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#8 started
2026-04-30 12:15:30.661 [trace] CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#8 success. Elapsed 0.2672729999758303
2026-04-30 12:15:30.662 [trace] RepoTracker.TriggerRemoteIndexing(manual).Repos: [] 
2026-04-30 12:15:30.670 [trace] CodeSearch.triggerIndexing(manual) failed. not-indexable
2026-04-30 12:16:28.684 [info] [CopilotCLIChatSessionContentProvider] listSessions took 9.381133999908343ms

[laicasaane]

If so, why does it work on Windows but not macOS?

I'm on Windows and it doesn't work for me too. Seems strange because the blog post for 1.118 says

Semantic indexing of non-GitHub repositories rolled out to all users

[brandon-williams-t2]

I'm on Windows with BitBucket repos, just updated to 1.118.1 when I saw the blog post as well. Not having any luck getting it to build. Nothing interesting in my logs. It states "Copilot Chat: 0.46.2, VS Code: 1.118.1". In the "GitHub Copilot Chat" extension, it says the last release was a week ago. Maybe it needs to update something after the VS Code release to enable it on its side 🤷‍♂️. Really would love to try it out.

[rsheftel]

I have a git repository on BitBucket, upgraded to the latest 1.118.1 version on Windows and get the same error message when running the command : "Chat: Build Codebase Semantic Index"

Versions:

Version: 1.118.1 (user setup)
Commit: 034f571df509819cc10b0c8129f66ef77a542f0e
Date: 2026-04-29T17:36:44+03:00
Electron: 39.8.8
ElectronBuildId: 13870025
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

[kanecko]

I am on Windows and was waiting for this release to get the semantic indexing for local repos. But, unfortunately, it fails with:
"Could not build codebase semantic index. No indexable repos found and support for indexing non-GitHub repos is not available"

It is a small python project with venv. I am using local git.

Version: 1.118.1 (user setup)
Commit: 034f571
Date: 2026-04-29T17:36:44+03:00
Electron: 39.8.8
ElectronBuildId: 13870025
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631

[movy]

Same here I guess, VSCode on MacOS, but running remote on Ubuntu 24.04
Version: 1.118.1
Commit: 034f571
Date: 2026-04-29T17:36:44+03:00
Electron: 39.8.8
ElectronBuildId: 13870025
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

When trying to build via github.copilot.buildRemoteWorkspaceIndex getting same error;

[benzman81]

same here with multi root workspace of private gitlab repos.

[ajmal-vh]

I am getting the same error in private github repo:
Could not build codebase semantic index. No indexable repos found and support for indexing non-GitHub repos is not available