Enterprise accounts

[IeuanWalker]

Does the SDK work with github enterprise accounts?

Im building an app that uses the github signed in user auth flow - https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/how-tos/copilot-sdk/authenticate-copilot-sdk/authenticate-copilot-sdk#github-signed-in-user

Works fine when using a standard user account, once i logout and then login to the cli using an enterprise account the SDK comes back as authenticated = false and of course api call fails -

System.IO.IOException: Communication error with Copilot CLI: Request models.list failed with message: Not authenticated. Please authenticate first.
 ---> GitHub.Copilot.SDK.RemoteRpcException: Request models.list failed with message: Not authenticated. Please authenticate first.
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.JsonRpc.InvokeAsync[T](String method, Object[] args, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.JsonRpc.InvokeAsync[T](String method, Object[] args, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.CopilotClient.InvokeRpcAsync[T](JsonRpc rpc, String method, Object[] args, StringBuilder stderrBuffer, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.CopilotClient.InvokeRpcAsync[T](JsonRpc rpc, String method, Object[] args, StringBuilder stderrBuffer, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.CopilotClient.InvokeRpcAsync[T](JsonRpc rpc, String method, Object[] args, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at GitHub.Copilot.SDK.CopilotClient.ListModelsAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at Cockpit.Features.Models.ModelFeature.GetModels() in C:\Users\c773975\source\repos\GHMine\Cockpit\src\Cockpit\Features\Models\ModelFeature.cs:line 37
   at Cockpit.Features.Models.ModelFeature.GetModels() in C:\Users\c773975\source\repos\GHMine\Cockpit\src\Cockpit\Features\Models\ModelFeature.cs:line 37
   at Cockpit.Features.Models.ModelFeature.GetDefaultModel() in C:\Users\c773975\source\repos\GHMine\Cockpit\src\Cockpit\Features\Models\ModelFeature.cs:line 55
   at Cockpit.Features.Sessions.SessionFeature.CreateSession(String workingDirectory) in C:\Users\c773975\source\repos\GHMine\Cockpit\src\Cockpit\Features\Sessions\SessionFeature.Lifecycle.cs:line 100
Exception thrown: 'System.IO.IOException' in Cockpit.dll
Exception thrown: 'System.IO.IOException' in System.Private.CoreLib.dll
Cockpit.Components.Popups.CreateSessionPopup: Error: Error creating session for directory C:\Users\c773975\source\repos\Work\WasteManagement-Bulky

[github-actions]

Investigation findings

Thanks for the report! I investigated the SDK's authentication code and documentation to understand what's happening here.

What I looked at

• dotnet/src/Client.cs — how UseLoggedInUser maps to CLI args (--no-auto-login)
• dotnet/src/Types.cs — available CopilotClientOptions (no GitHub host URL option)
• docs/auth/authenticate.md and docs/setup/github-oauth.md — authentication documentation

Root cause

The "GitHub signed-in user" auth flow works by letting the bundled Copilot CLI use stored credentials or gh CLI auth. The SDK itself doesn't perform authentication — it just passes --no-auto-login (or not) to the CLI process. Whether authentication succeeds depends entirely on what credentials the CLI finds.

The error "Not authenticated. Please authenticate first." is coming from the Copilot CLI, not the SDK layer.

There are two distinct "enterprise" scenarios worth separating:

Scenario	What it means	Should "signed-in user" work?
GitHub Enterprise Cloud (GHEC)	Your org is on github.com with enterprise features/SAML SSO	✅ — but requires your gh auth login session to be SAML-authorized for the org
GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES)	Self-hosted GitHub on a custom domain (e.g. github.mycompany.com)	⚠️ — the SDK has no gitHubHost option; the CLI may not find the right credentials

Recommended path for enterprise accounts

For enterprise users, the more reliable approach is the OAuth token flow — pass an explicit token via GitHubToken:

await using var client = new CopilotClient(new CopilotClientOptions
{
    GitHubToken = userAccessToken,  // gho_ or ghu_ token
    UseLoggedInUser = false
});

For GHEC with SAML SSO: The token from gh auth login must be authorized for your enterprise organization. You can verify this at https://github.com/settings/tokens — look for the "Enable SSO" button next to the token. The signed-in user flow may fail if this step is missing.

For GHES: The current SDK does not expose a way to specify a custom GitHub host URL for the CLI process, so the signed-in user flow is unlikely to work. An explicit token obtained from your GHES instance would be needed via GitHubToken.

Documentation gap

The authentication docs say enterprise accounts are supported, but this context applies to the OAuth token flow. The "signed-in user" section (docs/auth/authenticate.md) doesn't mention enterprise limitations. This should be clarified.

---

Could you let us know which setup you're using — GHEC or GHES? That will help determine whether this is a limitation to document or a bug to fix.

Generated by Bug Handler for issue #1260 · ● 618.1K · ◷

[IeuanWalker]

But i am authenticated via the cli using my enterprise account, so don't see why the bundled CLI cant see it the same way as a standard account