Products · Product
GitHub Copilot
Raised as a usability problem by 146 people on Hacker News over 6 years (2021–2026), in 119 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Autocomplete suggestions interrupt the programmer's thinkingUnreviewed
20212026- Spent more time figuring out how to disable suggestions than editing2026-01-28
- Suggestions are slow and often don't appear at all in VS Code2025-10-29
- Autocomplete suggestions are disruptive to the programmer's thinking and not very effective2025-10-15
Copilot cannot be removed, so constant suggestions must be toleratedUnreviewed
20212026- No button or link to disable Copilot after withdrawing consent2026-03-31
- Copilot keeps popping up dialogs even after uninstalling its extensions2025-09-08
- Copilot popups must be dismissed every time before continuing routine tasks2025-09-08
Completions appear at random moments and sometimes don't showUnreviewed
20212026- Completions appear aggressively and distractingly, often showing wrong code, so users must disable them2025-10-15
- Completions are slow or don't trigger, with no clear indication why2025-07-23
- Completions are slow, unreliable, appear at random moments and sometimes don't show2024-12-19
Tab key meant for indenting accidentally accepts unwanted suggestionsUnreviewed
20212026- Auto-suggestions hijack the Tab key, forcing Escape before every tab and causing hand pain2026-02-28
- Suggestions get in the way and must be dodged when pressing Tab2025-05-19
- Tab key meant for indenting accidentally accepts unwanted AI suggestions2025-02-14
Copilot suggestions block IntelliSense, hiding API completionsUnreviewed
20212026- Tab key accepts Copilot's grey suggestion instead of the intended IntelliSense completion2025-12-25
- Copilot suggestions appear first and block IntelliSense, so the user can't see API completions2023-06-03
- Copilot is only a glorified autocomplete and can't work across the whole codebase2023-05-03
Agent mode refuses reasonable actions with I can't complete that messagesUnreviewed
20212026- Agent ignores read-only Ask mode and repeatedly tries failing workarounds to edit files2026-09-13
- Agent mode refuses reasonable actions with "I can't complete that for you" messages2025-08-21
- Agent gets stuck at the very end and never finishes2025-05-20
Suggestions are often wrong and hard to spot, repeating the same mistakesUnreviewed
20212026- Needs repeated re-asking and refining prompts to get usable suggestions2024-01-25
- Suggested code is often plainly wrong, making it frustrating to use2023-08-27
- Suggestions sometimes wrong and hard to spot, and it repeats the same mistakes2022-06-21
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Autopilot mode gets stuck on silly approval prompts, so models can't run unattended overnight2026-10-15
- Agent ignores read-only Ask mode and repeatedly tries failing workarounds to edit files2026-09-13
- Scrollbar is blocked by chat window and keys scroll differently outside the answer area2026-08-09
- Updates silently change the tool's behaviour, degrading the experience the user relied on2026-08-07
- CLI feels half-baked and the app is disconnected from the codebase2026-07-28
- Can't tell whether they'd be moved to token billing; cost export is a multi-step, confusing process2026-06-02
- Launching the developer prompt for each single command is incredibly slow2026-04-28
- Agent shells get mangled and commands truncated, and dev servers sometimes hang waiting for terminal response2026-04-27
- User can't understand what a premium request is and finds it too complicated2026-04-22
- Users forget they are subscribed and find the cancel option hard to locate2026-04-22
- Documentation is half-complete and keeps pointing to other Copilot products2026-04-01
- No button or link to disable Copilot after withdrawing consent2026-03-31
- Opting out requires scrolling far down the settings page instead of one click2026-03-26
- Opt-out message conflicts with a setting already shown as disabled, so the user can't tell their status2026-03-25
- Opt-in data sharing setting is a dark pattern pushing users into sharing code2026-03-25
- Inserts code blocks at the wrong place in the file2026-03-23
- Auto-suggestions hijack the Tab key, forcing Escape before every tab and causing hand pain2026-02-28
- Native Copilot view jumps up and down constantly, making it hard to use2026-02-23
- Invents nonexistent methods and mixes up delivery and billing addresses2026-02-08
- Shows a monthly-limit-reached message for a feature the user never uses2026-02-08
- Must hand-craft prompts and tune context size or the assistant fails2026-02-08
- Constant flashing suggestions make writing code impossible; the obvious control only snoozes them2026-01-28
- Spent more time figuring out how to disable suggestions than editing2026-01-28
- Gemini implementation in Copilot is unusable, though the models work elsewhere2026-01-28
- Embedded AI is locked in a box, barely useful and refuses or claims it can't do tasks2026-01-23
- Copilot plugin randomly inserts invisible zero-width no-break spaces into files2026-01-19
- Tab key accepts Copilot's grey suggestion instead of the intended IntelliSense completion2025-12-25
- Chat panel has no integration with terminal; can't read or send commands2025-12-08
- Suggestions are slow and often don't appear at all in VS Code2025-10-29
- A useful button was replaced by a slow, unpredictable chatbot interaction, hurting speed and muscle memory2025-10-19
- Editing files outside the editor breaks changes and the LLM re-adds old edits2025-10-17
- Suggestions pop up too frequently and cannot be dialed down, only disabled2025-10-15
- Completions appear aggressively and distractingly, often showing wrong code, so users must disable them2025-10-15
- Autocomplete suggestions are disruptive to the programmer's thinking and not very effective2025-10-15
- Autocomplete is terribly slow and clunky to use2025-10-01
- Can't see which model is in use or find how to switch models2025-09-26
- Copilot keeps popping up dialogs even after uninstalling its extensions2025-09-08
- Copilot popups must be dismissed every time before continuing routine tasks2025-09-08
- Plugin is annoying to use for any length of time2025-09-07
- Copilot stays enabled despite settings saying it is disabled, support keeps closing ticket2025-09-06
- Unremovable AI buttons and nagging popups keep getting in the way2025-09-06
- Constant nag pop-ups and dark patterns push Copilot onto users2025-09-06
- Agent mode refuses reasonable actions with "I can't complete that for you" messages2025-08-21
- Same model fails to finish tasks or makes messes compared to other tools2025-08-08
- Completions are slow or don't trigger, with no clear indication why2025-07-23
- Keeps suggesting Optional[] typing syntax despite being asked not to repeatedly2025-07-21
- Generated code contains non-ASCII spaces, so copy-pasted code fails to run2025-07-15
- Extra mental overhead and UI context-switching breaks the user's flow2025-07-12
- Spent a long time unable to find how to use Workspace Gemini2025-06-25
- Autocomplete interrupts focus by jumping ahead and constantly updating suggestions2025-06-19