Error Assigning Copilot via API: "The agent encountered an error and was unable to start working on this issue: This may be caused by a repository ruleset violation"

[danmcpherson]

Select Topic Area

Bug

Body

Starting today, we are seeing the following error in timelines whenever we are assigning Copilot to work on an issue using the API:

"The agent encountered an error and was unable to start working on this issue: This may be caused by a repository ruleset violation. See granting bypass permissions for the agent, or please contact support if the issue persists."

We can assign Copilot via the Web UI with no issue. There are NO rulesets on the Repo or at the Org level.

Reproduction Steps

POST https://api.github.com/repos///issues/<issue#>/assignees
Body: {
"assignees": [
"copilot-swe-agent[bot]"
],
"agent_assignment": {
"working_branch_prefix": "copilot/issue-#",
"model": "claude-opus-4.6"
}
}

This returns:
Status: 201 Created
✅ Copilot assigned successfully!
Assignees: Copilot,

However, the above error quickly displays in the timeline.

For testing:
We use an account that is part of the Organisation, and is an Admin on the Repo.
We are using a PAT that has the right permissions, and we have tried different accounts (all which were working).

Anyone else seeing this?

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[scholtz]

i have the same issue on 3 different repos. started to occur something like 6-12 hours back

i have no rulesets on my repos

i use the copilot-cli to create issues, and assign it to copilot and then to merge it..

https://github.com/scholtz/events
https://github.com/scholtz/biatec-tokens
https://github.com/scholtz/biatectokensApi

now it gets stucked on creating issue and not assigning it to copilot. when i assign it manually through github ui it works

[scholtz]

Is there any recommended steps how to solve this issue?

I create github issues using gh issue create --title $title --body-file /tmp/issue.md --assignee copilot-swe-agent command

https://github.com/scholtz/events/blob/main/.github/agents/adam-product-owner.agent.md#create-github-issue

[danmcpherson]

I have tried:

1. GraphQL > Same issue.
2. GitHub CLI (the command you list) > Same Issue.
3. Claude third party bot > Same issue
4. We have tested on multiple Repos and Multiple Orgs > Same issue.
5. It does work from VS Code when you create a "Cloud" session (creates a PR assigned to Copilot)

What has also worked is to create a new PR, then @copilot on the PR. Copilot then creates a sub-PR, and works on the issue, but this is not the same thing, and less than ideal.

@scholtz have you raised a support ticket? mine is #4186226

[scholtz]

Mine is #4188339

[scholtz]

i did not get any reply so far.. did they write you something to the ticket?

[danmcpherson]

No, nothing. See my note below about oAuth working?

[scholtz]

how to authorize copilot to use oAuth?

[danmcpherson]

It looks like it's fixed.

[Dharmik2510]

Same issue for me

[Dharmik2510]

Let me know if you find any workaround :)

[vgithib]

Started seeing the same issue since last few days

[scholtz]

no solution yet, and its quite blocking.. have you created a support ticket? Perhaps if more people file this in tickets they will prioritize the fix. https://support.github.com/tickets/personal/0

[danmcpherson]

I have seen that it DOES work when using oAuth authentication. I found this out while testing with the GitHub Pull Request extension in VSCode which allows you to “Assign to Coring Agent”.

I'm using a "fine grained" PAT, and I've given it a full range of permissions (org and repo), but had the same result.

[allanmo79]

Same, suddenly happended any suggested solutions?

[scholtz]

no solution yet, and its quite blocking.. have you created a support ticket? Perhaps if more people file this in tickets they will prioritize the fix. https://support.github.com/tickets/personal/0

[introwit]

facing this exact same issue, did anyone find a workaround?

[scholtz]

no solution yet, and its quite blocking.. have you created a support ticket? Perhaps if more people file this in tickets they will prioritize the fix. https://support.github.com/tickets/personal/0

[introwit]

created the ticket 🤞🏽

[loflet]

The workaround which @danmcpherson mentioned about using OAuth instead of PAT worked for us. So if we use OAuth token then it works but if used PAT token then it doesn't.

[alextrep96]

Same here, started failing last friday and can't get it to work. I confirm I can assign task manually from Github but as soon as I try to do it from the gh api commands I get the same error as you. Looks like they added the OAuth restriction to the API as they did to the gh agent-task create (as described here)...

[danmcpherson]

It seems like it has started working again, will continue to test, but interested in any other feedback.

[MIKALAI-HURYN]

Yes, it works for me now as well.

[introwit]

yep, it now works for me too

[danmcpherson]

It broke again about 5 hours ago.

[scholtz]

broken for me again as well :(

[vgithib]

Yes issue started again since ~ 15 hrs ago
So tried by setting up a github app, and using it to generate a token via actions/create-github-app-token@v1 and the github appId + github app private key
The github app has access to the repo and has below Permissions
Read access to metadata, organization Copilot content exclusion, and organization copilot agent settings
Read and write access to actions, code, issues, pull requests, and workflows
But unable to assign to copilot via Github GraphQl Api as it can't find the 'copilot-swe-agent' actor itself in the suggestedActors query
Could anyone who has it working with oauth pl share the steps for the same
Thanks!

[AITT-org]

Same issue for me.

It seems this error is thrown for a range of issues because this was also thrown when I used the wrong model id in the POST request.

[seehorne]

This functionality appears to be back online for me!
(Note: my use case was assigning via a Github action, which I believe implicitly calls the API, though I was not explicitly calling the API myself. I do think it was the same issue though, since all of the downtimes have matched)

[MIKALAI-HURYN]

Now I see a slightly different error:
The agent encountered an error and was unable to start working on this issue: Please try again later, or contact support if the problem persists.

[deb-sahu]

I've put up a discussion for this - https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/191654

[introwit]

it now replies with a different error message:

The agent encountered an error and was unable to start working on this issue: The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

[EBoiSha]

Same issue here, following the same steps:

The agent encountered an error and was unable to start working on this issue: The service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. (Request id: 80F2:1D4933:398B93:5E81D6:69CCE4E3)

[syedsafeer]

Hi @danmcpherson,
since you've confirmed there are no explicit rulesets, this is likely a permissions or metadata sync issue with the bot agent.
A few things to double-check:

1. Fine-grained PAT: Ensure your token has 'Read and Write' access to Issues, Pull Requests, and most importantly, 'Read' access to Metadata.
2. Copilot Org Policies: Check if your Organization has a policy that restricts 'Copilot for Extensions' or third-party agents from performing write actions.
3. Branch Protection: Even if 'Rulesets' are empty, check if there are any old-style Branch Protection Rules on the default branch that might be blocking the agent from creating a new branch.

If these settings are correct, it might be a temporary backend glitch with the Copilot API.

(Hope this helps! If it does, please feel free to Mark as Answer.)

[MIKALAI-HURYN]

API calls are working again for me.

[arnab-senapati]

Ah yes, the classic '201 Created but actually failed asynchronously'—definitely feels like a backend regression!