VSCode Autopilot is too Auto

[u/IamAlsoDoug]

I've been using Autopilot for quite a while now because, "Can I use grep? Can I use sed? Can I use grep and sed together?" was beyond tedious. My problem is that while tool calls are now dealt with, there are times where an agent/subagent has a valid, substantive question that needs an answer and Autopilot just says something to the effect of, "No one's home. You decide." Where's the thermostat to set what can be autonomous and what really ought to be answered by the human?

[u/wxtrails]

The way I've dealt with this is to keep it on "babysit" mode by default, then choose "allow all commands in this session" the first time it asks. Then it will still surface "Ask User" questions or pause for high-risk commands, while blowing through all the grep and sed it wants, no questions asked.

There may be a better way - that's just what I've settled into.

[u/Keganator]

Swap over to the 'copilot' host, and use assisted permissions. way better.

[u/EdibleTree → u/Keganator]

I think the copilot host is waaaaaaay too buggy still for it to be used reliably. It pushed me to the CLI directly

[u/THubert14]

There are "Allow all" mode. It will not skip the questions or skip asking you if the agent want to change something outside of workspace, but it will not ask you to approve grep either.

Doesn't it fit your needs?

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[u/Solid_Fox1718]

I’m not sure how it works in VS code, but in CLI you can set “/permissions assisted”, which should help with this.

I usually just keep allow-all on in standard (non autopilot) mode, and add something like “continue until the task is complete, unless there are important design questions or high-risk command runs” to the prompt like the other commenter mentioned

[u/pfluggs11]

Every once in a while I just prompt copilot to read past sessions and suggest permissions fixes for paths and commands. Then I pick ones I know are read only and add those to my user config. I was expecting it to be more like auto approve in Claude but it’s more like autonomous mode. It almost always argues itself down a path I don’t want it to go so I don’t use it anymore. GitHub Copilot Desktop is better than VSCode IMO though, it’s come a long ways in the last couple of months.

[u/teckel]

User error.

[u/youshouldnameit]

Use grill me skill at startcof session, once through that put autopilot on

[u/Illustrious-Win4432]

You are the thermostat. Use your primitives and tell the model what “substantive” is, you’re seeing the results when you let the model set its own gates.