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Manual /rename is overwritten by later auto-generated session name #2622
Description
Describe the bug
A session name set manually via /rename <name> does not persist reliably. After continuing to work in the same session, Copilot CLI auto-renames the session again and overwrites the user-defined name.
Affected version
GitHub Copilot CLI 1.0.22
Steps to reproduce the behavior
- Start a new Copilot CLI session.
- Run
/rename my-name. - Continue working in the same session for a while.
- Check the session name again, or try to find it later in
/resume.
Expected behavior
A manually assigned session name should remain unchanged until the user explicitly renames it again.
Additional context
- Actual behavior: the manual name is replaced by an automatically generated session name.
- Impact: renamed sessions become hard to find later because the expected custom name no longer exists.
- OS: Windows
- Terminal: Windows Terminal
- Shell: PowerShell
Reacted by thisisjoelee
Activity
[-]Manual /rename is overwritten by later auto-generated session name[/-][+]Manual `/rename` is overwritten by later auto-generated session name[/+]fotgs commentedon Aug 18, 2026
how is this not fixed yet? this is disgustingly annoying. in what universe would this be the expected behavior? I rename the session once because I want to have a certain title, never over-write it.
patniko commentedon Oct 26, 2026
Thanks for the report. We've shipped fixes in this area since this was filed (most recently in Copilot CLI v1.0.92), and we believe this may now be resolved. Could you retest on the latest release (Copilot CLI v1.0.103) and let us know whether you still see it? If we don't hear back in a couple of weeks, we may close this issue — you can always reopen it.
Triaged as part of a Copilot SDK backlog review, with help from GitHub Copilot.
elfege commentedon Oct 31, 2026
@patniko Retested as asked: not resolved. Please do not close this.
VS Code 1.142.0 (commit 6d62b1d5), Copilot CLI agent session: the auto-generated title replaced the session name six times in about forty minutes, including immediately after a rename attempt. In VS Code,
/renameis not even executed; it is sent to the model as a prompt, and the auto-titler then builds the next title from it (details in #4244).Expected behaviour has not changed since this was filed: once the user names a session, nothing else ever renames it.