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Desktop app: Add ability to pick BYOK/configured models for background agents #4192
Description
Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve
Background agents in GitHub Copilot Desktop currently run using an automatically selected model, and users cannot override or choose a different one.
Proposed solution
Add model-selection control to the desktop app’s settings in a dedicated background agents tab in to assign models to each background agent. This would bring the desktop app to parity with VSCode, where the Explore Agent's model can be set by going to GitHub › Copilot › Chat › Explore Agent: Model
Example prompts or workflows
No response
Additional context
This request is related to Issue #4178, which focuses on showing the effective model used by background agents.
Activity
patniko commentedon Oct 26, 2026
Thanks for the report. We've shipped fixes in this area since this was filed, and we believe this may now be resolved. Could you retest on the latest release (Copilot CLI v1.0.103) and let us know whether you still see it? If we don't hear back in a couple of weeks, we may close this issue — you can always reopen it.
Triaged as part of a Copilot SDK backlog review, with help from GitHub Copilot.