Copilot Chat does not search available private repositories

[vayshya]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot in GitHub

Body

I was using Copilot Chat in the GitHub Android
app and asked it to help with a repository
question.

Copilot Chat did not initially look for the
relevant repository among the private
repositories available to me.

Expected behavior:
Copilot Chat should search the repositories
available to my account when answering a
repository-related question.

Actual behavior:
It did not find or use the relevant private
repository until I clarified where to look.

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[XY-code1]

Since it found the repo after you clarified where to look, I'd test repository selection separately from repository access. Open the private repo in GitHub Mobile and launch Copilot from that repo, or explicitly give owner/repo and ask it to cite a known file path before answering. If that works but the same question in an unscoped chat doesn't, the report is about discovering or selecting the repo, not necessarily a permissions issue. A useful product improvement would be to ask which repo to use rather than silently answering without it. If the explicitly scoped test also fails, report the app version, entry point, and whether the repo is personal or organization-owned, without sharing private code.