--agent <agent name> does not work with --plugin-dir <dir> -p <prompt>

[shivsant]

Describe the bug

When I use --agent with --plugin-dir -p , it starts scanning the .copilot or .github directory for .
Though this agent is present in the plugin-dir, copilot is not able to find it.

If I don't pass -p , the copilot TUI opens and I can see the agent selected.

I am using the version 1.0.31 (latest)

Affected version

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Download a plugin to a directory, with a "agent/.agent.md"
2. pass the same agent name as "copilot --agent --plugin-dir " -> You will see the TUI showing "agent name" selected
3. Now pass with -p switch "copilot --agent --plugin-dir -p 'hi' " -> This will error out saying the agent is not available

Expected behavior

(With and without -p) and with --plugin-dir and with --agent, copilot should be able to find the right agent

Additional context

No response

[shivsant]

Any update on this bug?

[jreddyk]

--agent is problematic in real use case. Can we get any update on that?

[khinhooi]

Could Github please take a look?

[sfuqua]

Likely the same issue, but if you run -p "Invoke the task tool with agent_name <plugin>:<agent>" it will not be able to discover the agent during runtime, either. It seems the headless session just doesn't load custom agents at all with --plugin-dir

[schea12]

We really need this capability, to be functioning consistently.
Without this, the request sometimes goes into incorrect md and produce wrong result.