chat.tools.autoApprove: true does not suppress approval prompts for built-in agent tools

[shigginsDHCS]

Type: Bug

Description

With both chat.tools.autoApprove and chat.tools.global.autoApprove set to true in user settings, built-in Copilot agent tools still show "Allow Once" / "Cancel" approval dialogs for every call.

Affected tools: grep_search, read_file, file_search, semantic_search, list_dir, subagent calls (runSubagent), fetch_webpage, and others.

Not affected: Terminal commands (run_in_terminal) auto-approve correctly via chat.tools.terminal.autoApprove.

The "Always Allow" option is rarely or never shown in the dialog, so there is no way to permanently approve these tools from the UI either.

Settings (confirmed in User settings.json)

"chat.tools.autoApprove": true,
"chat.tools.global.autoApprove": true

Environment

• VS Code version: 1.122.1 (arm64, macOS)
• OS: macOS (Darwin arm64)
• Copilot extension: latest

Steps to Reproduce

1. Set both chat.tools.autoApprove and chat.tools.global.autoApprove to true in user settings
2. Open Agent mode chat
3. Ask the agent to perform any task that uses built-in tools (e.g., "scan the codebase for bugs")
4. Every tool call prompts for approval despite the settings

Expected Behavior

Built-in agent tools should execute without approval prompts when chat.tools.autoApprove: true is set.

Possibly Related

• Repeated tool approval notifications despite 'Always allow without review' setting #298909 (closed as fixed in ~1.110, but behavior persists on 1.122.1)
• [Proposed API] chat.agent.onPermissionRequest - enable programmatic resolution of agent mode permission requests #302362 (proposed API for programmatic permission resolution)