fix(engines): normalize wildcard bash commands to canonical tool permission syntax by Copilot · Pull Request #31599 · github/gh-aw

Copilot · 2026-05-11T23:28:50Z

Bug Fix

What was the bug?

The release agent (and other workflows importing shared/community-attribution.md) was hitting repeated "Permission denied" errors for jq, awk, sed, and bash invocations. The shared import provides these as jq *, sed *, etc., which compiled to --allow-tool shell(jq *). The Copilot CLI uses prefix matching — shell(jq *) only allows commands literally starting with jq * (literal asterisk), so every real jq invocation was denied.

How did you fix it?

Added a shared normalizeBashCommand() helper in pkg/workflow/engine_helpers.go that strips the trailing " *" suffix from bash tool entries, converting wildcard forms to their canonical prefix form:

"jq *" → "jq"
"gh issue list *" → "gh issue list"

Applied the normalization in all three agentic engines before they wrap the command in their engine-specific permission format:

Engine	Before	After
Copilot	`shell(jq *)`	`shell(jq)`
Claude	`Bash(jq *)`	`Bash(jq)`
Gemini	`run_shell_command(jq *)`	`run_shell_command(jq)`

This means imported shared workflows like community-attribution.md (which use "jq *", "sed *", "cat *", etc.) now emit the canonical prefix form that each engine's permission matcher actually uses, without requiring every consumer to add redundant bare entries.

The full-wildcard sentinels "*" and ":*" (which signal "allow all shell commands") are handled separately and are unaffected by this change.

Testing

Added TestNormalizeBashCommand unit tests for the new helper covering plain commands, cmd * patterns, multi-word commands, and sentinel values.
Added wildcard normalization test cases to the Copilot, Claude, and Gemini engine tool tests.
Updated one pre-existing test that expected the old non-normalized shell(python3 *) form.
Regenerated 24 affected lock files; all shell(cmd *) patterns are replaced with canonical shell(cmd) forms.

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

pelikhan · 2026-05-12T01:14:09Z

@copilot all agentic engines should normalize wildcard bash command to the canonical syntax they sipport. Eg jq * -> shell(jq)

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

…prefix form Add normalizeBashCommand() helper in engine_helpers.go that strips the " *" suffix from bash tool entries (e.g. "jq *" → "jq"). Apply it in all three agentic engines before wrapping the command in their respective permission formats: Copilot: shell(jq *) → shell(jq) Claude: Bash(jq *) → Bash(jq) Gemini: run_shell_command(jq *) → run_shell_command(jq) This means imported shared workflows like community-attribution.md (which use "jq *", "sed *", "cat *", etc.) now emit the canonical prefix form that Copilot CLI prefix-matching actually uses, without requiring every consumer to add redundant explicit bare entries. Updated test expectations and regenerated affected lock files. Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot · 2026-05-12T01:35:51Z

@copilot all agentic engines should normalize wildcard bash command to the canonical syntax they sipport. Eg jq * -> shell(jq)

Done in the latest commit. Added a shared normalizeBashCommand() helper in engine_helpers.go that strips the trailing " *" suffix from bash tool entries, and applied it in all three agentic engines before they wrap the command in their respective permission formats:

Copilot: shell(jq *) → shell(jq)
Claude: Bash(jq *) → Bash(jq)
Gemini: run_shell_command(jq *) → run_shell_command(jq)

Imported shared workflows like community-attribution.md (which use "jq *", "sed *", etc.) now emit the canonical prefix form without requiring consumers to add redundant bare entries. Also regenerated the 24 affected lock files.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Fixes tool-permission mismatches across Copilot/Claude/Gemini engines by normalizing bash tool entries written with a trailing " *" wildcard into canonical prefix-matching forms, preventing “Permission denied” for common commands imported from shared workflows.

Changes:

Added normalizeBashCommand() helper and unit tests to strip trailing " *" from per-command bash tool entries.
Applied normalization across Copilot, Claude, and Gemini tool permission generation + expanded engine test cases.
Regenerated affected workflow lock files and removed an unused action pin entry.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
pkg/workflow/engine_helpers.go	Adds shared `normalizeBashCommand()` helper.
pkg/workflow/engine_helpers_test.go	Adds unit tests for the normalization helper.
pkg/workflow/copilot_engine_tools.go	Normalizes bash tool entries before emitting `shell(...)` allowlist items.
pkg/workflow/copilot_engine_test.go	Updates/extends Copilot engine tool permission tests for normalization.
pkg/workflow/claude_tools.go	Normalizes bash tool entries before emitting `Bash(...)` allowlist items.
pkg/workflow/claude_engine_tools_test.go	Adds Claude tool allowlist normalization test cases.
pkg/workflow/gemini_tools.go	Normalizes bash tool entries before emitting `run_shell_command(...)` items.
pkg/workflow/gemini_engine_test.go	Adds Gemini tool-core normalization test cases.
pkg/workflow/imports_inputs_test.go	Updates expectation to reflect normalized bash tool output in lock content.
pkg/workflow/data/action_pins.json	Removes an unused pinned action entry.
pkg/actionpins/data/action_pins.json	Removes an unused pinned action entry (mirrored dataset).
.github/aw/actions-lock.json	Removes an unused pinned action entry (GitHub-side lock).
.github/workflows/release.md	Adds explicit bash tool entries for the release workflow.
.github/workflows/release.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/workflow-skill-extractor.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/visual-regression-checker.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/unbloat-docs.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/stale-pr-cleanup.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/smoke-workflow-call.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/smoke-workflow-call-with-inputs.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/smoke-multi-pr.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/scout.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/safe-output-health.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/go-logger.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/draft-pr-cleanup.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/discussion-task-miner.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/dev-hawk.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-syntax-error-quality.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-safe-output-optimizer.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-safe-output-integrator.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-rendering-scripts-verifier.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-geo-optimizer.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/daily-community-attribution.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/copilot-opt.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/copilot-cli-deep-research.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/blog-auditor.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.
.github/workflows/auto-triage-issues.lock.yml	Regenerated lock file reflecting normalized tool permissions.

Copilot's findings

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Files reviewed: 37/37 changed files
Comments generated: 3

+func TestNormalizeBashCommand(t *testing.T) {
+tests := []struct {
+name            string
+input           string
+expectedCmd     string
+expectedChanged bool
+}{
+{
+name:            "plain command unchanged",
+input:           "jq",
+expectedCmd:     "jq",
+expectedChanged: false,
+},
+{
+name:            "command with space-star suffix is stripped",
+input:           "jq *",
+expectedCmd:     "jq",
+expectedChanged: true,
+},
+{
+name:            "multi-word command with space-star suffix is stripped",
+input:           "gh issue list *",
+expectedCmd:     "gh issue list",
+expectedChanged: true,
+},
+{
+name:            "command with arguments but no wildcard unchanged",
+input:           "jq . /tmp/file.json",
+expectedCmd:     "jq . /tmp/file.json",
+expectedChanged: false,
+},
+{
+name:            "lone star is not stripped (handled as full-wildcard sentinel)",
+input:           "*",
+expectedCmd:     "*",
+expectedChanged: false,
+},
+{
+name:            "colon-star is not stripped (handled as full-wildcard sentinel)",
+input:           ":*",
+expectedCmd:     ":*",
+expectedChanged: false,
+},
+{
+name:            "sed with space-star suffix is stripped",
+input:           "sed *",
+expectedCmd:     "sed",
+expectedChanged: true,
+},
+{
+name:            "awk with space-star suffix is stripped",
+input:           "awk *",
+expectedCmd:     "awk",
+expectedChanged: true,
+},
+}
+
+for _, tt := range tests {
+t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+gotCmd, gotChanged := normalizeBashCommand(tt.input)
+if gotCmd != tt.expectedCmd {
+t.Errorf("normalizeBashCommand(%q) cmd = %q, want %q", tt.input, gotCmd, tt.expectedCmd)
+}
+if gotChanged != tt.expectedChanged {
+t.Errorf("normalizeBashCommand(%q) changed = %v, want %v", tt.input, gotChanged, tt.expectedChanged)
+}
+})
+}
+}


 								// Add individual bash commands with Bash() prefix
 								for _, cmd := range bashCommands {
 									if cmdStr, ok := cmd.(string); ok {
-										allowedTools = append(allowedTools, fmt.Sprintf("Bash(%s)", cmdStr))
+										// Normalize trailing " *" wildcard (e.g. "jq *" → "jq") so that
+										// all engines emit the canonical prefix form (Bash(jq)) regardless
+										// of whether the command was written with or without the wildcard.
+										normalized, _ := normalizeBashCommand(cmdStr)
+										allowedTools = append(allowedTools, fmt.Sprintf("Bash(%s)", normalized))
 									}
 								}


  cli-proxy: true
+  bash:
+    - jq
+    - bash


Add bash tools to release.md to fix permission denied errors

88d06af

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and pelikhan May 11, 2026

Copilot AI changed the title ~~Fix tool permission denied errors in release.md bash configuration~~ fix(release): add missing bash tools to unblock jq, awk, sed, bash in agent May 11, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan May 11, 2026 23:29

Copilot created this pull request from a session on behalf of pelikhan May 11, 2026 23:29 View session

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan May 11, 2026 23:29

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan May 12, 2026 01:14 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits May 12, 2026 01:21

chore: initial plan checkpoint

db2001a

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~fix(release): add missing bash tools to unblock jq, awk, sed, bash in agent~~ fix(engines): normalize wildcard bash commands to canonical tool permission syntax May 12, 2026

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan May 12, 2026 01:36

pelikhan marked this pull request as ready for review May 12, 2026 01:41

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 12, 2026 01:41

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of pelikhan May 12, 2026 01:42 View session

Copilot AI reviewed May 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

pelikhan merged commit 092ce8b into main May 12, 2026
4 checks passed

pelikhan deleted the copilot/fix-tool-permission-denied-errors branch May 12, 2026 01:48

Copilot AI mentioned this pull request May 12, 2026

Address review feedback: dedupe normalized Claude Bash tools and tighten release bash permissions #31615

Merged

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request May 12, 2026

[docs] Update documentation for features from 2026-05-12 #31676

Merged

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fix(engines): normalize wildcard bash commands to canonical tool permission syntax#31599

fix(engines): normalize wildcard bash commands to canonical tool permission syntax#31599
pelikhan merged 3 commits into
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Bug Fix

What was the bug?

How did you fix it?

Testing

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Copilot AI commented May 11, 2026 •

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