COPILOT CLI SHIPS MCP MANAGEMENT AND OTEL DOCS; EXPERIMENTAL “RUBBER DUCK” REVIEWER LANDS; COPILOT DATA-TRAINING DEFAULTS CHANGE
GitHub updated Copilot CLI with ops-focused fixes, added an experimental second-model reviewer, and changed Copilot data-training defaults for individual users....
GitHub updated Copilot CLI with ops-focused fixes, added an experimental second-model reviewer, and changed Copilot data-training defaults for individual users.
Copilot CLI v1.0.21 adds a new copilot mcp command to manage Model Context Protocol servers, memory reductions via auto-closing idle shells, and normalized hook payloads; v1.0.20 introduced an OpenTelemetry monitoring help topic and set Azure OpenAI BYOK to the GA v1 route by default when unset (v1.0.21, v1.0.20).
GitHub is trialing “Rubber Duck,” a reviewer that uses a second model family to critique agent plans and catch early mistakes; coverage suggests notable gains on complex, multi-file tasks, with one report claiming ~75% improvement in a benchmark (InfoWorld, Neowin).
Separately, starting April 24, Copilot interaction data from individual Free/Pro/Pro+ users is on by default for model training, with opt-out available; Business/Enterprise are excluded. A community post also flags hidden token burn in the VS Code Copilot Agent mode’s background calls (policy FAQ, token-burn report).
Better observability (OTel) and MCP control help keep agents accountable, while the privacy change and hidden token costs affect governance and budgets.
The reviewer agent can reduce flailing on hard problems, trading extra calls for fewer bad plans.
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terminal
Enable /experimental and trial Rubber Duck on a sandboxed, multi-file refactor; compare steps, errors, and total calls versus baseline.
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terminal
Turn on tracing via copilot help monitoring and capture latency/tool-call/token patterns; verify idle shell cleanup and hook payload consumers.
Legacy codebase integration strategies...
- 01.
If any devs use individual Copilot Pro on proprietary code, set guidance to opt out of training before April 24 and review repo access.
- 02.
Adjust any hook/event consumers to the new snake_case payloads (hook_event_name, session_id, ISO 8601 timestamps).
Fresh architecture paradigms...
- 01.
Adopt MCP to tightly scope tool access for agents and pair it with OpenTelemetry from day one.
- 02.
Use Rubber Duck for complex, cross-file tasks; keep it off for trivial edits to save tokens.