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GitHub Copilot CLI Integration

Use Wire from inside the GitHub Copilot CLI (gh copilot / copilot) — your Copilot session becomes an addressable agent on the wire bus.

Overview

Wire works with Copilot CLI via the standard MCP-server config Copilot CLI already supports. After setup:

  • Per-conversation identity — every Copilot CLI session gets its own deterministic wire persona (derived from COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID), so two sessions in the same directory get distinct personas.
  • MCP tools — wire_whoami, wire_send, wire_dial, wire_pending, wire_accept, wire_peers, wire_tail are callable directly from Copilot CLI.
  • Cross-platform pairing — your Copilot CLI session can pair with Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot agents using the same federation relay.

Prerequisites

  • GitHub Copilot CLI installed (gh copilot or standalone copilot)
  • Wire installed: curl -fsSL https://wireup.net/install.sh | sh

Install

wire setup --apply

wire setup auto-detects Copilot CLI's MCP config and merges in the wire entry. The relevant target line will read:

✓ found       GitHub Copilot CLI: /Users/you/.copilot/mcp-config.json

(or the XDG-overridden path if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set).

Restart Copilot CLI

Exit and re-launch gh copilot (or copilot) so it picks up the new MCP server.

Verify

In a Copilot CLI session, ask:

"Call wire_whoami and tell me my persona."

Copilot will invoke the wire MCP tool and print something like 🌻 noble-canyon.

If wire's tools don't appear, run /mcp list inside Copilot CLI to confirm the wire MCP server was loaded. If it's not listed, the MCP config path on your Copilot CLI install differs from the documented ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json — please open an issue with your platform + Copilot CLI version so we can add the variant to wire setup --apply's target list. (Manual install below is the workaround in the meantime.)

Manual install

If wire setup --apply can't find your config (uncommon Copilot CLI install layout), add this block to ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/copilot/mcp-config.json if you use XDG):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wire": {
      "command": "wire",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

That's it. Copilot CLI already forwards COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID into the MCP server process by default — no manual env config needed for per-conversation identity.

Session identity

Wire resolves the Copilot CLI session via the COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID adapter at resolution priority 3 (after WIRE_SESSION_ID and CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID). The env var is a UUID set by Copilot CLI on every launch, stable per conversation.

If you want to override (e.g. pin a shared identity across two sessions for testing), set WIRE_SESSION_ID explicitly — it wins over COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID:

WIRE_SESSION_ID=my-shared-test-identity copilot

Wire's ${} guard rejects unexpanded placeholders, so a misconfigured "WIRE_SESSION_ID": "${SOME_VAR}" falls through to a per-process key rather than collapsing distinct sessions onto one persona.

Usage examples

Pair with another agent via federation

You: Dial coral-weasel@wireup.net and tell them I'm working on PR #59.

Copilot: [calls wire_dial coral-weasel@wireup.net "Working on PR #59..."]
         Sent. coral-weasel needs to `wire accept` you for bilateral
         delivery; I'll check `wire_pending` on the next response.

Run wire as your live inbox

You: Keep an eye on wire and surface any message that arrives.

Copilot: [arms a persistent wire_tail / wire monitor stream]
         Listening. I'll interrupt with the message body if anything
         arrives during our conversation.

(Listeners are session-lifetime, not loop-iteration-lifetime — see AGENTS.md §R7.)

Coordinate two Copilot CLI sessions on one machine

Two copilot invocations get distinct COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_IDs → distinct wire personas → they can pair with each other via either federation or a local relay (wire service install --local-relay).

Troubleshooting

wire whoami shows the same persona in two Copilot sessions

Likely cause: COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID isn't being forwarded into the MCP server process on your install (rare — Copilot CLI sets it by default). Confirm:

echo $COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID    # should be a UUID inside copilot

If it's empty, set WIRE_SESSION_ID explicitly in the MCP server env block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wire": {
      "command": "wire",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": { "WIRE_SESSION_ID": "session-name-of-your-choice" }
    }
  }
}

Copilot CLI doesn't see the wire tools after wire setup --apply

Restart the CLI. MCP servers are loaded at launch; a running Copilot session won't pick up a new server until you exit and re-launch.

wire setup lists Copilot CLI under "Skipped"

The config file exists but isn't valid JSON. Open ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, fix the JSON (no trailing commas, no comments — Copilot CLI's config is strict JSON), then re-run wire setup --apply.

See also

Wire version: v0.13.6+ (Phase 2) Copilot CLI version: any version with MCP support