copilot-cli does not persist environment variables between tool calls.

[thawkins]

Describe the bug

Working with beads mcp server there are many issues, these all seem to resolve to a difference between copilot-cli and many other codeing clis.

see the following issue report for an explaination.

gastownhall/beads#246

Affected version

0.0.354

Steps to reproduce the behavior

use the list function in the beads-mcp server

Expected behavior

environment variable set on an mcp tool call, is not persisted to the next call.

Additional context

No response

[niik]

Hey @thawkins, thanks for reaching out!

I tried reproducing this but there must be something I'm missing. Could you please share your mcp config file (~/.copilot/mcp-config.json), redacting if necessary.

I made a tiny little mcp server and configured it as such

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bell": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "node",
      "tools": [
        "*"
      ],
      "args": [
        "mcp-server.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

That server got persisted (i.e the processed stayed running) for the duration of my session and could track state across multiple tool calls.

 ● Configured MCP servers: bell

 ● Connected to GitHub MCP Server

 > Ring the bell please

 ✓ ring-the-bell
   ↪ The bell has been rung 1 times.

 ● The bell has been rung 1 time! 🔔

 > Ring the bell again please

 ✓ ring-the-bell
   ↪ The bell has been rung 2 times.

 ● The bell has been rung 2 times! 🔔

 > Ring the bell again please

 ✓ ring-the-bell
   ↪ The bell has been rung 3 times.

 ● The bell has been rung 3 times! 🔔

Could you please verify that you're using the latest version of copilot and then verify that the beads mcp server indeed gets restarted on each tool call?

[github-actions]

Thank you for your issue! Unfortunately, we are unable to reproduce the issue you are experiencing. Please provide more information so we can help you.

Here are some tips for writing reproduction steps:

• Step by step instructions accompanied by screenshots or screencasts
  are the best.
• Be as specific as possible; include as much detail as you can.
• If not already provided, include:
  • the version of Copilot CLI you are using.
  • the operating system you are using
  • any environment factors you can think of.
  • any custom configuration you are using.
  • a log file from the day you experienced the issue (find log
    files via ~/.copilot/logs.
• If relevant and can be shared, provide the repository or code you
  are using.
• If relevant and can be shared, provide the session files (find session files via ~/.copilot/history-session-state).

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