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Some Copilot CLI base instructions issued to a subagent prevent it from writing output to a file #3335

@CezaryKlus

Description

@CezaryKlus

Describe the bug

  • I created a set of agents forming an orchestrator pattern for the full Work Item implementation
  • When orchestrator executes a subagent responsible for functional testing this subagent consistently reports that it either could not write a test result file or was instructed not to write output to a file
  • In either orchestrator or functional tester there are absolutely no instructions to prevent writing output files
  • Orchestrator invokes the functional testing subagent only with the Work Item ID (no other runSubagent additional instructions)
  • In other subagents for phases like Implementation everything works perfectly fine

Sample response from functional testing subagent (GPT 5.3 Codex) "...but I could not write the required notes file due the active session constraint: “Do NOT write output to files.”"

Related bug report: #3049

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Additional context

The same workflow works 100% fine when run via VS Code.

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    area:agentsSub-agents, fleet, autopilot, plan mode, background agents, and custom agentsarea:context-memoryContext window, memory, compaction, checkpoints, and instruction loading

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