Customizable status bar: show Git auth status and working directory context

[GaretAnderson]

Feature Request

Problem

The Copilot CLI bottom status bar currently shows model, agent, mode, ctrl keys, and loaded skills — but has no way to display user-defined context. It could be configurable but for example, two pieces of information would significantly improve situational awareness:

1. GitHub auth status — Which accounts are authenticated, by which protocol (SSH vs HTTPS). Users with multiple identities (personal + work) need to know which identity is active before making commits or API calls.

2. Working directory / repo context — The current folder or repo name, and whether agent context files exist (e.g., copilot-instructions.md, claude.md, .copilot/ skills directory). This matters because these files change agent behavior, and users should know when they're active.

Proposed UX

Top status row (next to model/agent indicator):
~\Source\config\ :: Claude Opus 4.6 (3x) (medium) config-helper

Bottom status row (centered, between mode/ctrl keys and skill indicators):
ssh:PersonalAccount || https:CorpAccount

Why this matters

• Multi-identity developers (personal + corp GitHub accounts) need visibility into which identity is active to avoid committing with the wrong account or pushing to the wrong remote.
• Agent context awareness — repos with copilot-instructions.md, skills, or claude.md change agent behavior. Surfacing this in the status bar prevents confusion about why the agent behaves differently in different repos.
• No workaround exists — the TUI takes over the terminal, so wrapper scripts can only flash info briefly before launch. There's no config, plugin API, or extension point to inject content into the status bar.

Suggested implementation

A config-driven approach, e.g. in ~/.copilot/config.json:

json { "statusBar": { "left": "{{ cwd }}", "center": "{{ git.auth }}", "right": "{{ skills }}" } }

Or a simpler statusBarItems array with predefined tokens like cwd, git-auth, repo-context-files, model, agent.

Even just exposing cwd and git auth as built-in status bar items (opt-in via config) would cover the primary use case.

[examon]

This should be resolved as of v0.0.413, which introduced configurable status line support via the statusLine.command config option. You can point it at a custom shell script that receives session data (including cwd) as JSON on stdin and outputs whatever you want displayed. It currently requires experimental mode (--experimental). If you believe this isn't resolved, please feel free to reopen this issue.