Arch Linux User Repository

For everyone having build issues with the shell completion, follow the following steps:

• Remove your ~/.copilot/pkg folder
• Clear your AUR helper cache
• If using makepkg, use -C

That should solve your problem. However, if the issue persists, build your package in a clean chroot environment.

There aren't problems with packaging, and nothing will be changed on our side, so avoid commenting on a problem that has already been discussed many times. Thanks!

Just found the solution for me. I also had to delete the copilot/pkg dir in ~/.cache

For everyone having build issues with the shell completion, follow the following steps:

• Remove your ~/.copilot/pkg folder
• Clear your AUR helper cache
• If using makepkg, use -C

That should solve your problem. However, if the issue persists, build your package in a clean chroot environment.

There aren't problems with packaging, and nothing will be changed on our side, so avoid commenting on a problem that has already been discussed many times. Thanks!

I am still having the issue, even after uninstalling, cleaning the paru cache and the whole ~/.copilot dir (I did not have a pkg subdir in it).

@ttobsen, @Edu4rdSHL, I removed the mentioned directory before updating to 1.0.41-1. I confirm this resolves the issue! Thank you!

Root cause confirmed - workaround available:

The build failure is caused by a leftover ~/.copilot/pkg/ directory from a previous legacy GitHub Copilot CLI installation. This directory contains old code (e.g. version 0.0.418) that does not support the completion subcommand. The new ELF binary picks up this directory at runtime and uses it instead of its own code, causing completion bash to fail.

This explains why clean chroot builds succeed — the directory does not exist there.

Immediate fix for affected users:

rm -rf ~/.copilot/pkg

Then retry the installation normally. No PKGBUILD changes needed.

Verified by reproducing the failure with the directory present and confirming success after removing it.

the native binary does not expose completion. The build succeeds in some environments by coincidence, not by design

That's not how it works. If it builds on a clean chroot environment every time, that's not a coincidence. A clean chroot is the only source of truth and the only way to make sure that we have a package that can be built everywhere without problems; if it builds there, then packaging is fine.

And no, @github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot works fine too:

$ /usr/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/node_modules/@github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot completion bash
# bash completion for copilot
# Generated by `copilot completion bash`. Do not edit by hand.
___copilot_is_known_path() {
    case "$1" in
        'login') return 0 ;;
        'help') return 0 ;;
        'init') return 0 ;;
        'update') return 0 ;;
        'version') return 0 ;;
        'plugin') return 0 ;;
...

Update after further investigation:

Confirmed that pkgctl build succeeds on my machine. However, testing the native binary (@github/copilot-linux-x64) directly shows that completion bash fails regardless of version - both 1.0.39 and 1.0.40:

$ /usr/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/node_modules/@github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot completion bash                                                                                 
error: Invalid command format.
Did you mean: copilot -i "completion bash"?

The JS fallback (index.js) does have the completion subcommand and works correctly:

$ node /usr/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/index.js completion bash                                                                                                                  
# bash completion for copilot                                               
# Generated by `copilot completion bash`. Do not edit by hand.                                                                                                                         
...

Why pkgctl build succeeds while plain makepkg fails for multiple users is unclear — but the underlying issue is the same in both cases: the native binary does not expose completion. The build succeeds in some environments by coincidence, not by design.

Using node index.js directly for completion generation makes the build reliable and environment-independent. The patch from my earlier comment still applies.

Additionally, we have an automated build in Chaotic AUR which hasn't had an issue. Even @mburakov command works fine:

$ curl 'https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/github-copilot-cli.tar.gz' | tar xz; cd github-copilot-cli; makepkg
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
100   2761   0   2761   0      0   2745      0           00:01              0
==> Making package: github-copilot-cli 1.0.40-1 (Mon 04 May 2026 06:45:43 AM -05)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading copilot-1.0.40.tgz...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
100 36.25M 100 36.25M   0      0 71.61M      0                              0
  -> Downloading CHANGELOG-1.0.40.md...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
100 114.1k 100 114.1k   0      0 890.6k      0                              0
==> Validating source files with b2sums...
    copilot-1.0.40.tgz ... Passed
    CHANGELOG-1.0.40.md ... Passed
==> Extracting sources...
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting package()...
  -> Install using Using NPM
  -> Fix ownership of ALL FILES
  -> Remove references to PKGDIR
  -> Fixing 'package.json'
  -> More fixes for 'package.json'
  -> Generating autocompletions for Bash
  -> Generating autocompletions for Zsh
  -> Generating autocompletions Fish

For the people reporting, can you reproduce the issue using git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/github-copilot-cli.git && cd github-copilot-cli && pkgctl build ? Also, people reporting here don't have any custom makepkg flags that may be overwriting https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=github-copilot-cli#n27 ?

It isn't a problem with packaging.

@ttobsen, there aren't network restrictions or anything related in the environments where it's being built. It builds fine with pkgctl from devtools (which is where the previous gist comes from), as well as using makepkg -s as you can see in the following code block:

╭─ /tmp/tmp.2lbicELQP6 ─────────────────────────────────────── 06:38:34 
╰─❮ gclone ssh://aur@aur.archlinux.org/github-copilot-cli.git
Cloning into 'github-copilot-cli'...
Warning: Permanently added 'aur.archlinux.org' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
remote: Enumerating objects: 524, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (524/524), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (199/199), done.
remote: Total 524 (delta 323), reused 522 (delta 323), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (524/524), 125.29 KiB | 610.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (323/323), done.

╭─ /tmp/tmp.2lbicELQP6 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 4s 06:38:43 
╰─❮ cd github-copilot-cli/

╭─ /tmp/tmp.2lbicELQP6/github-copilot-cli master ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 06:38:45 
╰─❮ makepkg -s --rmdeps
==> Making package: github-copilot-cli 1.0.40-1 (Mon 04 May 2026 06:38:56 AM -05)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading copilot-1.0.40.tgz...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
100 36.25M 100 36.25M   0      0 57.84M      0                              0
  -> Downloading CHANGELOG-1.0.40.md...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed  Time    Time    Time   Current
                                 Dload  Upload  Total   Spent   Left   Speed
100 114.1k 100 114.1k   0      0 503.3k      0                              0
==> Validating source files with b2sums...
    copilot-1.0.40.tgz ... Passed
    CHANGELOG-1.0.40.md ... Passed
==> Extracting sources...
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting package()...
  -> Install using Using NPM
  -> Fix ownership of ALL FILES
  -> Remove references to PKGDIR
  -> Fixing 'package.json'
  -> More fixes for 'package.json'
  -> Generating autocompletions for Bash
  -> Generating autocompletions for Zsh
  -> Generating autocompletions Fish
  -> Install README file
  -> Install CHANGELOG file
  -> Install LICENSE file
==> Tidying install...
  -> Removing libtool files...
  -> Purging unwanted files...
  -> Compressing man and info pages...
==> Checking for packaging issues...
==> Creating package "github-copilot-cli"...
  -> Generating .PKGINFO file...
  -> Generating .BUILDINFO file...
  -> Generating .MTREE file...
  -> Compressing package...
==> Leaving fakeroot environment.
==> Finished making: github-copilot-cli 1.0.40-1 (Mon 04 May 2026 06:39:04 AM -05)

Can confirm that the build is broken. Using yay and zsh. Cleaned everything multiple times.