Use Copilot Desktop app as a client for remote Copilot CLI sessions (e.g. cloud devbox)

[shajinzheng]

Feature summary

Use the GitHub Copilot Desktop app as a client to attach to remote Copilot CLI sessions running on another machine (e.g., a cloud devbox).

What problem are you trying to solve?

A lot of development work happens on remote machines — cloud devboxes, GPU hosts, or beefy build servers — rather than on the local laptop. Today the Copilot Desktop app drives Copilot sessions that run locally, so when the actual work (code, build tools, GPUs, large repos) lives on a remote host, I either have to run the CLI in a terminal over SSH and lose the nicer desktop UX, or replicate my whole environment locally, which is often impractical.

I'd like the polished Desktop experience while the session — including tool execution, file access, and the working directory — runs where my code and compute actually are.

Proposed solution

Let the Copilot Desktop app act as a thin client that connects to a remote Copilot CLI session running elsewhere:

• Start (or attach to) a copilot CLI session on a remote host (over SSH or a similar secure transport) and surface it in the Desktop UI.
• Tool calls, file reads/writes, and shell commands execute on the remote host, in the remote working directory.
• Support reconnecting to a long-running/detached session after the laptop sleeps or the network drops, so background work survives disconnects.
• Allow managing multiple remote sessions/hosts from the Desktop app.

This is conceptually similar to the SSH remote support requested in #91 ("Support ssh remote connection like Codex Desktop"), but specifically about using Desktop as the front-end for a remote Copilot CLI session.

Workflow impact

Anyone whose primary dev environment is remote — cloud devboxes, GPU/ML hosts, large monorepos that don't fit comfortably on a laptop — would benefit. It removes the trade-off between "nice desktop UX" and "run where my code and compute live," and lets long-running agent work continue on the remote host across local disconnects.

Installation context

Local Copilot Desktop app connecting to a remote cloud devbox / dev server running the Copilot CLI.

Additional context

Related: #91 (Support ssh remote connection like Codex Desktop).

[chuwik]

Thanks for sharing this feedback.

We're actively working on improving the remote story in the app, with a more complete featureset coming soon.

For now, if you want to run a session in the 'cloud', you can change the environment when creating a new session, and control it from the mobile app or 'Agents' tab in github.com.