Bug Report: Workspace Agents of Copilot Chat Not Detected When VS Code Is Run Outside /Applications on macOS

[Jasaj4]

Workspace Agents under .github/agents are not detected when VS Code is launched from outside /Applications on macOS (App Translocation issue)

Environment:

• macOS (version: 26.1 (25B78))
• Visual Studio Code (version: 1.107.0)
• GitHub Copilot Chat extension (version: 0.35.0)

Summary

When Visual Studio Code is executed from a location other than /Applications on macOS (e.g., Desktop or Downloads), GitHub Copilot Chat fails to detect and load any Workspace Agents located in .github/agents/*.agent.md.

Once VS Code is moved into /Applications and relaunched, the Workspace Agents appear immediately and function normally.

This indicates that VS Code’s execution under macOS App Translocation interferes with Copilot’s Workspace Agent loader, even though VS Code’s core functionality continues to work.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Download the macOS .zip build of Visual Studio Code.
2. Extract it and run Visual Studio Code.app directly from Desktop or Downloads (without moving it into /Applications).
3. Open a workspace containing the following structure:

.github/
  agents/
    sample.agent.md

4. Confirm that:

   • The .agent.md file contains valid YAML front-matter.
   • Workspace Trust is enabled.

5. Open Copilot Chat → Agent/Ask/Edit dropdown.

Expected Behavior

• Copilot Chat should detect and load custom Workspace Agents regardless of the installation location, as long as VS Code has access to the workspace files.

Actual Behavior

• No Workspace Agents are displayed.
• Copilot Chat behaves as if .github/agents does not exist.
• No relevant error message is shown.
• Moving VS Code into /Applications and relaunching immediately fixes the issue.

Analysis

Based on testing and macOS behavior:

• When VS Code is launched outside /Applications, macOS applies App Translocation, causing VS Code to run from a temporary, read-only, “quarantined” path.
• This affects VS Code’s internal path resolution and/or extension host capabilities.
• As a result, Copilot Workspace Agents cannot be discovered, even though other features of VS Code function normally.

This behavior is not documented on the download page or in the Copilot Workspace Agents documentation, and is difficult for end-users to diagnose.

Why This Should Be Considered a Bug

• From the user perspective, Workspace Agents silently fail without warning.
• VS Code itself functions normally from any location, so users have no reason to suspect installation location as the cause.
• Other major features of Copilot Chat continue to work, making the failure non-obvious.
• No warning message or hint is provided in UI or documentation.

This creates avoidable confusion for users and makes Workspace Agents appear unstable.