Codeman never logs Copilot in or stores its credentials.
- **Interactive.** Run `copilot` once and use `/login` (or `copilot login`), or do it inside a
Codeman tab. The token goes to the OS keychain when one is available.
- **Headless server.** There is no keychain on a service, so Copilot offers to keep the token
as **plain text in `~/.copilot/config.json`** (`authTokens`). That is where it ends up when you
accept. To keep a token out of a file, set `COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN` in the service environment;
Copilot reads it first, then `GH_TOKEN`, then `GITHUB_TOKEN`.
- **Per-session override.** `COPILOT_*` is the only prefix the env allowlist admits for
Copilot. `GH_TOKEN` and `GITHUB_TOKEN` are deliberately **not** accepted as per-session
overrides: the allowlist is one global list with no mode context, so admitting them would
make them settable on every session. Use `COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN`.
- **No GitHub sign-in is needed** when a session points at your own endpoint (below).
## What Codeman wires up
| Thing | Behaviour |
| --- | --- |
| Launch | `copilot`, in Copilot's own Manual Approval mode. |
| Run button | `copilot --yolo` (allow every tool, path and URL), like the other CLIs' bypass switches, so an unattended session never stops on an approval. |
| Permission clamp | `allowAll` is a `privilegedParam`. A multi-user owner without the bypass grant has it forced back to `false`; an absent config is never materialized (a bare `copilot` is already safe). `COPILOT_HOME`, `COPILOT_ALLOW_ALL`, `COPILOT_PROVIDER_*` and `COPILOT_MODEL` are privileged env keys. |
| Model | `--model <id>`, sent only by an API caller that sets `copilotConfig.model` (the value must start with a letter or digit, like `resumeSessionId`). Nothing in the UI sets it: a saved custom endpoint sets `COPILOT_MODEL` instead (see below). |
| Resume | `--resume <value>`, sent only by an API caller that sets `copilotConfig.resumeSessionId` (Past Sessions does not). The value (an id, an id prefix or a session name) must be one plain word starting with a letter or digit: `--resume`'s value is optional, so `--resume --yolo` would otherwise make `--yolo` its own flag and bypass the clamp. |
| Continue | `--continue`, from **Past Sessions**: it resumes the most recent conversation Copilot has for that directory. Nothing sets it on a respawn. Skipped when a resume value is set. |
| Name | A tab name **you set yourself** is passed as `--name <tab name>`, so Copilot's own session list reads like that tab. An automatic name (`w1-myapp`, or an auto-named title) is not pinned. Copilot refuses `--name` with `--resume`/`--continue`, so it is dropped there and a continued session keeps the name it had. |
| Working / idle | The footer. A turn shows `◉ Working esc edit prompt` (the dot alternates `◉`/`◎`); the composer is the `❯` between two rules. A tool waiting for approval replaces the composer and reads as idle. |
| Model detection | The right-hand field of the footer's last row, at rest and mid-turn. |
| Status probe | `GET /api/copilot/status`, plus an entry in the CLI-installed probes and `codeman doctor`. |
| MCP | The entry declares `mcpConfig` (`~/.copilot/mcp-config.json`, dialect `copilot-json`, relocated by `COPILOT_HOME`), so [MCP server sync](./cli-registry.md) treats it as a target and a source. `copilot mcp disable` is honoured (read from `settings.json`, never written). |
| Docker | The agent image installs `@github/copilot`. No credential directory is seeded (see below). |
### Your own endpoint (BYOK)
With custom model endpoints on, a saved endpoint is offered in the Run menu for Copilot and
launches straight onto it (no restart; the env is applied before the process starts):
| Codeman field | Variable |
| --- | --- |
| base URL (+ `/v1`) | `COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL` |
| key | `COPILOT_PROVIDER_API_KEY` |
| model | `COPILOT_MODEL` |
`COPILOT_PROVIDER_TYPE` is not set: it defaults to `openai`, which is what a Codeman custom
endpoint is (llama.cpp, vLLM, Ollama). All of these are privileged env keys.
Checked at the CLI level against a local OpenAI-compatible endpoint (1.0.95): it posted to
`/v1/chat/completions` with the key and the model name, needed no GitHub sign-in, and
