Copilot CLI doesn't work with GH_TOKEN authentication?

[johnwildes]

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Hello,
I have the gh cli installed, with the copilot extension. I've been trying to get the cli auth to work with GH_TOKEN environment variable. I scoped a PAT very narrowly, and cli would work but the copilot extension continually returns

✗ Error: No valid GitHub CLI OAuth token detected
To get started with GitHub Copilot in the CLI, please run: gh auth login --web -h github.com to authenticate via web browser.

When I attempt gh auth status it shows logged in with all scopes correctly identified. When I attempt to run the gh auth login --web -h github.com I get the following error message.

The value of the GH_TOKEN environment variable is being used for authentication.
To have GitHub CLI store credentials instead, first clear the value from the environment.

So which is it? I want to use the token environment variable for authentication and gh cli says that's good, but the copilot extension apparently is not good with this. Did I miss documentation somewhere that states gh copilot cli doesn't support this token authentication?

[Yaser-123]

You're encountering a common point of confusion for GitHub Copilot in the CLI!

The gh copilot extension specifically requires authentication via the GitHub CLI OAuth app, not just a Personal Access Token (PAT) from the GH_TOKEN environment variable.

Even if gh CLI itself is working with your PAT for other commands, the Copilot extension has a stricter requirement for its own authentication.

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To fix this:

Temporarily clear your GH_TOKEN environment variable:

• On Linux/macOS:

  unset GH_TOKEN

• On Windows (Command Prompt):

  set GH_TOKEN=

• On Windows (PowerShell):

  Remove-Item Env:GH_TOKEN

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Run the recommended authentication command:

gh auth login --web -h github.com

This will open your web browser to complete the OAuth authentication process, which is what the Copilot extension needs.

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Once authenticated via the web browser, gh copilot should work, and you can then set your GH_TOKEN back if you need it for other gh CLI commands that support PATs.

[johnwildes]

Thanks, I discovered this using the gh ext browse command and saw the documentation note there.

[theophanemayaud]

So… this means no github copilot CLI in headless environments like continuous integration ? Seems like a huge missed opportunity! I want to use the copilot CLI to automate team stuff not only have it do work on my local machine with interactive auth !

[yuliia-sukhova]

Are there any plans to support running GitHub Copilot CLI in CI/CD workflows or as part of a GitHub Actions pipeline in the near future?

[theophanemayaud]

Since my last comment I've just had to rely on cursor cli for "custom" workflows, though of course I use GitHub copilot coding agent and review agents which are technically "workflows". But not general purpose workflows. It would indeed really be nice to have support for headless environments in copilot agent cli !