Support sourcing user shell config (BASH_ENV/bashrc) for bash tool

[kyle-ingka]

Problem

When the Copilot CLI bash tool runs commands, it doesn't respect user shell configurations like BASH_ENV, ~/.bashrc, or custom functions/aliases.

Use Case

I have a safety wrapper function in ~/.funcs.sh that overrides rm to use trash (move to macOS Trash instead of permanent deletion):

function rm() {
  local files=()
  for arg in "$@"; do
    if [[ "$arg" != -* ]]; then
      files+=("$arg")
    fi
  done
  trash "${files[@]}" 2>/dev/null || true
}

I set export BASH_ENV=~/.bash_env.sh in ~/.zshenv, which sources my functions. This works for bash -c 'type rm' in subshells, but the Copilot CLI's bash tool doesn't pick it up.

Current Behavior

• BASH_ENV is inherited by the Copilot CLI process
• But bash commands run via the tool still use /bin/rm instead of my function
• User safety wrappers and aliases are ignored

Expected Behavior

Option to source user config before running commands, e.g.:

• Respect BASH_ENV for command execution
• Or add a flag/config like --rc-file ~/.bash_env.sh
• Or a config option in ~/.config/github-copilot/config.json

Environment

• macOS (Darwin)
• Copilot CLI version: 0.0.365
• Shell: zsh (launching copilot), bash (tool execution)

Workaround

Currently documenting in my AGENTS.md to use trash instead of rm, but this requires remembering to instruct the AI agent explicitly.

[scaryrawr]

+1 for this.

In GitHub Codespaces + Azure DevOps, we use microsoft/codespace-features artifacts-helper. For older versions, this ends up adding shell functions that wrap things like az, yarn, npm, dotnet to support authentication with Azure DevOps package feeds.

Without the wrappers, commands end up failing inside of copilot since it ends up calling commands directly instead of calling the functions in $BASH_ENV or ~/.bashrc.

[torumakabe]

I'm experiencing a similar issue as a zsh user on Linux.

Observed behavior in v0.0.395:

The release notes mention "Load local shell configuration in agent sessions". After testing, I found:

• .bashrc aliases (e.g., ll) work in agent bash tool sessions
• .zshrc aliases (e.g., alias k=kubectl) do NOT work in agent sessions
• ! prefix commands use /bin/sh, so no aliases work at all

Since I'm a zsh user, my aliases are in .zshrc, not .bashrc. The current implementation only sources bash configuration, leaving zsh users without their customizations.

Environment:

• OS: Linux
• Shell: zsh
• Copilot CLI: v0.0.395

Suggestion: It would be helpful to either:

• Respect $SHELL and source the appropriate config (.zshrc for zsh users)
• Or provide a config option to specify a custom rc file to source

[examon]

This was taken care of in v0.0.412. You can opt into sourcing BASH_ENV before running shell commands by passing the --bash-env on flag or setting bashEnv: true in your config. If you believe this isn't resolved, please feel free to reopen this issue.