Copilot can't use the `Format Document` command

[FMorschel]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.101.1
• OS Version: Windows 11 Pro

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Ask Copilot to format a file using the built-in format command
2. See that it can't perform the task

Basic JSON will fail too, so it is not Dart specific:

I can't say what is wrong since nothing is shown on the output like for other tools. I was expecting to use this in a custom prompt/instruction for it to always format its changes when it has completed editing the files.

[DanTup]

For me it claims to have run it (it doesn't say it failed), but it also did not actually make any edits:

[aiday-mar]

There is an extension called Commander which you can use to run commands from the command palette. Perhaps Copilot should automatically suggest this extension for installation when it detects that the user wants to run a command @benibenj

[DanTup]

@aiday-mar is this functionality not supposed to be built-in? It seems odd to need another extension for something this basic when VS Code is already contributing many tools.

Oddly, I thought VS Code already contributed a tool to execute these commands, but I can't see it in the list. This UI is confusing though - it's not clear to me what tool it's trying to invoke:

The "Format Document" text is a link which I assumed went to docs about Format Document, however clicking it does nothing and the link looks like this in the DOM:

So I don't know what it was trying to do here, but I do feel like basic functionality like having it execute "Format Document" shouldn't require a third-party extension (particularly when there are built-in tools for things like searching a GitHub repository!).

[aiday-mar]

Hi @DanTup thanks for the comment. I am not the owner of this feature area so I am not quite sure how the code is structured. Perhaps my colleagues can answer your questions.

[FMorschel]

I have to agree here that this seems basic functionality that I assumed it was built-in. It can use the embedded terminal, run tests and see the outputs, create new files and folders, read files, read the problems tab, etc, but not running commands? Really weird spot to decide where to stop implementing functionality.

But I'll wait for the answer.