Using Plugins Marketplace on GitHub Copilot with ssh remote ?

[gsemet]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot Coding Agent

Body

I can use custom Plugins Marketplace on Copilot on VsCode on my mac, it is all in local so it works great.
However i use another PC on Windows with WSL2, so it is viewed as "Remote SSH", and the marketplace plugins cannot be cloned. Is there a way to make it work ?

[Sagargupta16]

The Plugins Marketplace in Copilot currently requires local filesystem access to clone plugin repos, which is why it breaks over SSH Remote.

A couple of workarounds:

1. Clone plugins on the remote machine manually - SSH into your Windows/WSL2 box and clone the plugin repos into the expected directory (usually ~/.copilot/plugins/ or the path Copilot uses). Then restart VS Code - the plugins should be detected.

2. Use VS Code Remote Tunnels instead of SSH - Remote Tunnels run a full VS Code server on the remote machine, so plugins clone locally on that machine rather than trying to bridge over SSH. Setup: code tunnel on your Windows PC, then connect from your Mac via the tunnel.

3. Mount the remote filesystem - If you use SSHFS or a similar tool to mount the remote filesystem locally, the plugin clone path resolves correctly.

The root issue is that the marketplace assumes a local filesystem. Remote Tunnels (option 2) is probably the cleanest long-term fix since it runs everything server-side.

[gsemet]

On a Windows PC, the goal is to execute on the WSL2 system, and edit from the windows side, so i think we need a "client-only" execution. There is no Mac involved in this use case.

[Sagargupta16]

Got it - so the setup is VS Code on Windows connecting to WSL2 via the Remote - WSL extension (not SSH to a separate machine).

For this specific case:

1. Open VS Code from inside WSL2 - Instead of opening VS Code on Windows and connecting to WSL2, launch it from the WSL2 terminal:

   code .

   This starts the VS Code server inside WSL2 directly. Plugins should clone into the WSL2 filesystem where they are accessible.

2. Set the plugins clone path to WSL2 filesystem - If Copilot is trying to clone plugins to the Windows side (e.g., C:/Users/.../plugins), it fails because WSL2 cannot resolve that path properly. Check if there is a setting to override the clone directory to a WSL2 path like /home/<user>/.copilot/plugins/.

3. Pre-clone plugins manually in WSL2 - From your WSL2 terminal, clone the marketplace plugins into wherever Copilot expects them. Then restart VS Code - it should detect them.

The core issue is that VS Code Remote - WSL runs extensions on the WSL2 side but some operations (like git clone from the marketplace UI) might still execute on the Windows host. Launching VS Code from within WSL2 usually fixes this.

[Harshal-25C]

This issue happens because Copilot Plugins Marketplace expects a local filesystem, but in your case (WSL2), things are split between Windows and Linux.

When you use VS Code Remote - WSL, extensions run inside WSL2, but some actions (like cloning plugins) may still try to run on the Windows side — and that’s where it breaks.

💡 Easy fixes you can try:

1. Open VS Code from WSL2 (Best solution)

Instead of opening VS Code from Windows, do this:

code .

Run this inside your WSL2 terminal.

👉 This ensures everything (including plugin cloning) runs inside WSL2 properly.

2. Make sure plugins are cloned inside WSL2

If plugins are being cloned to a Windows path like:

C:\Users\...

👉 It won’t work correctly.

Try using a WSL path like:

/home/your-user/.copilot/plugins/

3. Manual workaround

You can also:

• Go to WSL2 terminal
• Manually clone plugin repos into expected folder
• Restart VS Code

👉 Copilot should detect them automatically

🧠 Simple understanding

Think of it like this:

Windows = one environment
WSL2 = another environment

👉 Plugins must stay in WSL2 side, not Windows side