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Add non-interactive exec and input prompt support #96
Description
Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve
No response
Proposed solution
Benefits
- Enables scripting, automation, and CI use cases.
Proposed Solution
Add a new subcommand:
copilot exec [OPTIONS] [PROMPT]
- PROMPT: natural language instructions. If
-or omitted, read from stdin. - Options: --model, --sandbox, --full-auto, --dangerously-bypass-approvals, --json, --output-schema, --resume, etc. (aligning closely with Codex CLI).
- Default: propose a command and ask for approval.
- --full-auto: run automatically in a safe sandbox.
- --json: emit JSONL output for scripting and pipelines.
Example prompts or workflows
-
Log parsing
cat app.log | copilot exec "print only lines with status 500 and count them" -
Scaffold a project
copilot exec "init a Node project, install express, add GET /health route" -
jq help
curl -s https://api.example.com/items | copilot exec - "write a jq command to list id and name" -
Safe repo search
copilot exec "grep for TODOs excluding node_modules" -
Python quick test
copilot exec "create venv, install requests, fetch https://example.com"
Additional context
Problem
Copilot CLI currently only works in interactive mode.
There’s no way to:
- Run a one-off prompt non-interactively.
- Pipe stdin into the agent and get a command back.
- Use Copilot CLI inside scripts, CI/CD, or makefiles.
Codex CLI provided this via codex exec. Users migrating from Codex expect similar functionality.
Activity
lostintangent commentedon Sep 27, 2025
If you run
copilot -p <prompt>, that allows you to run prompts headlessly (vs. with the TUI). If you get a chance to check it out, I'd love to hear how well that suits your use cases, since we definitely want it to be well-suited for automation/scripting 👍flynnhandley commentedon Sep 28, 2025
Excellent, that works for me!
I assumed this feature isn't available, because running
copilot "do something"returned:error: too many arguments. Expected 0 arguments but got 1.Perhaps the error message could reference
copilot --help?avanderhoorn commentedon Sep 29, 2025
@flynnhandley Addressed in daily!
RyanHecht commentedon Sep 29, 2025
The error messages are improved in
http://github.com/github/copilot-cli/releases/tag/v0.0.329
feat(providers): add GitHub Copilot CLI + restore to seed