npx -p -- Execution failed: Cannot destructure property 'viewer' of 'r.data' as it is undefined.

[efjacobson]

Describe the bug

my github copilot cli was in a broken state after attempting to use some apparently invalid syntax. i had been using it successfully by running npx @github/copilot and then manually copy/pasting prompts. i then wanted to pass the prompt in with the command, so i attempted npx @github/copilot -- -p 'asdf' and then npx @github/copilot -p 'asdf'. after the second command, i got this error: Execution failed: Cannot destructure property 'viewer' of 'r.data' as it is undefined.

i then attempted to go back to manually pasting prompts, but no matter what i pasted in, i got the same error. i tried clearing the session, deleting all contents of the directory, closing all terminal windows, even restarting the computer, but i still got the error

the slash commands like /help and /model still executed successfully, but all prompts, no matter how simple, failed in the same way

i was able to fix the issue by clearing out the npx cache: rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx

Affected version

Version 0.0.333 · Commit 4cbf3da

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. type npx @github/copilot -p 'asdf'

Expected behavior

fail gracefully

Additional context

No response

[RyanHecht]

Interesting -- I wonder if there were any hints in the NPX cache that can point us to the root cause here?

[efjacobson]

unfortunately i no longer have the offending cache, and i can't repro today, even if i use the same version as before with npx @github/copilot@0.0.333

npx @github/copilot@0.0.333 -- -p 'asdf' - fails due to invalid syntax ✅
npx @github/copilot@0.0.333 -p 'asdf' - works ✅