Copilot hangs and offers to add all files on my computer in Add Context

[apexskier]

Describe the bug
GitHub Copilot for xcode appears to be searching my entire computer when I try to add additional files as context, instead of the workspace, which I'd expect. This causes a massive hang and makes the entire system unresponsive for a second or two, then the copilot window for an additional more than 10 seconds.

Versions

• Copilot for Xcode: 0.36.0
• Xcode: 16.3 (16E140)
• macOS: 15.5 (24F74)

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Copilot Chat Window
2. Press "Add Context..." button

There's a huge hang, then the dropdown seems like it contains all files on my computer instead of just those in the workspace.

Screenshots

Logs
None outputted when doing this

Additional context
I have two xcode projects open, both in ~/Developer/{projectname}.

[testforstephen]

@apexskier thank you for reaching out. Would you mind describing your project file structure? If it's organized by *.xcworkspace, could you share the structure of contents.xcworkspacedata under your *.xcworkspace?

[apexskier]

It's pretty standard, just a standard project created from the "App" template when using xcode's New > Project..., with files in folders, not groups. No package dependencies or non swift packages dependencies, no manually added symlinks or git submodules or anything.

It's using an .xcodeproj, not .xcworkspacedata at the root of the project, but there is a contents.xcworkspacedata file.

❯ cat homecamera.xcodeproj/project.xcworkspace/contents.xcworkspacedata 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Workspace
   version = "1.0">
   <FileRef
      location = "self:">
   </FileRef>
</Workspace>

[testforstephen]

It's pretty standard, just a standard project created from the "App" template when using xcode's New > Project..., with files in folders, not groups. No package dependencies or non swift packages dependencies, no manually added symlinks or git submodules or anything.

@apexskier, I followed the steps above to create a new test project named “bug326” using the "App" template in the ~/Library/Developer directory, and then opened the project in Xcode. When I choose “Add Context”, it only lists files under ~/Library/Developer/bug326. This is the expected behavior — it takes the parent folder containing the *.xcodeproj metadata as the project root.

In your case, it seems to be using ../../your_project as the project root, which is a bit unusual. Could there be a missing step needed to reproduce the issue? thanks.

[apexskier]

Could there be a missing step needed to reproduce the issue? thanks.

Here's a video showing the bug - same steps as you and it's showing files from my entire computer.

Welcome.to.Xcode.-.Xcode.-.2025-06-16.at.20.28.32.mp4

In your case, it seems to be using ../../your_project as the project root, which is a bit unusual.

I'm not sure where you're seeing this?

---

One other thought - I'm using xcodes to manage xcode versions, but I don't have any thoughts about why that would cause this issue.

[testforstephen]

would you mind sharing the log at ~/Library/Logs/GitHubCopilot/github-copilot-for-xcode.log? thanks.

[apexskier]

Whole file:

github-copilot-for-xcode.log

This is the log cropped to only during a reproduction of the bug (after creating the project)...

example.log