Request to Copilot Cloud Agent via custom agent fails with 400 error if model selection does not align

[chvancooten]

Describe the bug

When assigning a Copilot Cloud custom agent to an issue, any model selection (including auto) that does not align with the model: field in the custom agent specification crashes the agent with the error CAPIError: 400 Requested model not available for session, even after logs indicate that the model has correctly been overridden from the agent definition for that session.

Affected version

N/A - Github Copilot Cloud Agent

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Create a custom agent definition on a repo with a model definition (e.g. model: Claude Opus 4.6)
2. Assign an issue to Copilot (cloud agent) on the repo
3. In the "Assign agent to issue" modal, select the custom agent AND select a mis-matching model (e.g. Auto or Claude Sonnet 4.6)
4. Observe how the agent session fails with error CAPIError: 400 Requested model not available for session

Expected behavior

Copilot correctly overrides the chosen session model and completes without errors.

Additional context

Truncated output of Processing Request (Linux) step of Copilot pipeline (in this case with auto model selected):

Custom agent "procedure-agent" specifies model "Claude Opus 4.6" (resolved to "claude-opus-4.6"), overriding session model "sweagent-capi:claude-sonnet-4.6"

[...]

CAPIError 400 Requested model not available for session 
ERROR: {
  "name": "CAPIError",
  "text": "Copilot has encountered an internal error. If the problem persists, please contact GitHub Support, including the request ID `9408:185805:9A4587:A75A6B:69DE0218`. To retry, leave a comment on this pull request asking Copilot to try again.",
  "stack": "CAPIError: 400 Requested model not available for session\n    at _0x54111a.fromAPIError (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:28:8030557)\n    at WLe.getCompletionWithTools (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:28:8048929)\n    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)\n    at async mce.getCompletionWithTools (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:28:8187000)\n    at async _We.runCompletionWithTools (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:36193)\n    at async _0x1879ec (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:33944)\n    at async _We.agent (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:34283)\n    at async _We.runAgentLoop (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:44134)\n    at async _We.runAgentLoopAndEvaluate (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:45005)\n    at async _We.runAgent (file:///home/runner/work/_temp/***-action-main/dist/index.js:152:65753)",
  "message": "400 Requested model not available for session",
  "request_id": "00000-eede4b63-803d-4177-bcd9-2ea6893ffbc2",
  "ghRequestId": "9408:185805:9A4587:A75A6B:69DE0218",
  "service": "capi",
  "code": "400",
  "skipReport": false,
  "isVisionFlow": false
}