Get automated code review on your own pull requests
Uh oh! Task: Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. sbelectronics Mar 19, 2026 Select Topic Area Question Copilot Feature Area Copilot in GitHub Body I hope this is the right place to submit this question. I've been using Github Copilot's code review feature on a paid personal/individual subscription. I'm using it to review pull requests that I myself open against my own private repository. At first it worked fine. But shortly later it started failing 50% of the time with this error. Over time the failure rate increased and it's now failing > 90% of the time. There are runners stuck executing code review tasks for as long as 6 hours before they eventually time out. I tried submitting a ticket, but the only options for submitting copilot tickets are for "Billing, Signup, or activation" and for "Privacy and data protection.". Github's help agent suggested I file it as a privacy concern, but it's been days and was never answered, so I'm not sure that was the right place. As far as I know, I have not exceeded any quota, nor have I submitted so many requests as to trigger any rate limiting. It seems to happen regardless of whether the PR is large or small. Is there anything I should check? Is this a known issue? The copilot code reviews were a really nice feature before they stopped working. Since you're on a Individual sub and seeing those 6-hour hangs, you aren't hitting a "usage quota"you're hitting a Context Timeout. Basically, the Copilot Review agent is getting "lost" in your repo's dependency graph or a massive lockfile, and it doesn't have a graceful way to give up. The "Zombie Runner" Problem When a review hangs for 6 hours, it usually means the runner is trying to index files that should have been ignored (think node_modules, dist, or massive .json data files). Because it's a private repo, the agent tries extra hard to "understand" the local context to give a good review, but it eventually hits a recursion limit and just spins its wheels until the backend kills the … Replies: 3 comments · 1 reply Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. Radi410 Mar 20, 2026 Since you're on a Individual sub and seeing those 6-hour hangs, you aren't hitting a "usage quota"you're hitting a Context Timeout. Basically, the Copilot Review agent is getting "lost" in your repo's dependency graph or a massive lockfile, and it doesn't have a graceful way to give up. The "Zombie Runner" Problem When a review hangs for 6 hours, it usually means the runner is trying to index files that should have been ignored (think node_modules, dist, or massive .json data files). Because it's a private repo, the agent tries extra hard to "understand" the local context to give a good review, but it eventually hits a recursion limit and just spins its wheels until the backend kills the process. The Support Hack You’re 100% right that the "Privacy" category is a black hole. If you want a human to actually look at your stuck runner logs, file the ticket under "Billing" and lead with: "I am paying for an Individual subscription but the Code Review feature is technically non-functional due to 6-hour timeouts." Billing tickets have a much stricter SLA and usually get a human eyes-on within 24 hours. Immediate Workarounds: Convert to Draft: Toggle the PR to a Draft and back to Ready for Review. This often forces the backend to kill any "zombie" processes attached to that specific PR ID and start a fresh runner. Audit your .gitignore: If you have large files or minified assets tracked in Git, Copilot will try to "read" them during the review. Ensure your workspace is lean. The "Small Batch" Test: Try a 1-line change in a new PR. If that fails too, your account’s specific worker queue is likely corrupted and needs a manual reset from GitHub Staff. Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. sbelectronics Mar 21, 2026 Author I've found that if I go into actions and start canceling the damn things, sometimes they'll generate output anyway. Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. Rajveer-code Mar 21, 2026 Yeah, this sounds frustrating — especially since it used to work and then degraded over time. A few things based on similar issues people have run into with Copilot code review: This looks more like a backend/job issue than quota Long-running jobs (hours) + eventual timeouts usually point to: stuck workers / runners failed job scheduling or internal queue issues; tools: GitHub Copilot. Human role: The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.; limitations: GitHub Copilot's support ticket categories are limited to 'Billing' and 'Privacy', making it difficult to report technical feature failures directly. The review agent lacks graceful error handling for large binary files, leading to 'zombie runners' that consume resources until timeout. Users must manually audit .gitignore and repository contents to prevent context timeouts, as the tool does not automatically exclude non-code assets effectively..
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Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. sbelectronics Mar 19, 2026 Select Topic Area Question Copilot Feature Area Copilot in GitHub Body I hope this is the right place to submit this question. I've been using Github Copilot's code review feature on a paid personal/individual subscription. I'm using it to review pull requests that I myself open against my own private repository. At first it worked fine. But shortly later it started failing 50% of the time with this error. Over time the failure rate increased and it's now failing > 90% of the time. There are runners stuck executing code review tasks for as long as 6 hours before they eventually time out. I tried submitting a ticket, but the only options for submitting copilot tickets are for "Billing, Signup, or activation" and for "Privacy and data protection.". Github's help agent suggested I file it as a privacy concern, but it's been days and was never answered, so I'm not sure that was the right place. As far as I know, I have not exceeded any quota, nor have I submitted so many requests as to trigger any rate limiting. It seems to happen regardless of whether the PR is large or small. Is there anything I should check? Is this a known issue? The copilot code reviews were a really nice feature before they stopped working. Since you're on a Individual sub and seeing those 6-hour hangs, you aren't hitting a "usage quota"you're hitting a Context Timeout. Basically, the Copilot Review agent is getting "lost" in your repo's dependency graph or a massive lockfile, and it doesn't have a graceful way to give up. The "Zombie Runner" Problem When a review hangs for 6 hours, it usually means the runner is trying to index files that should have been ignored (think node_modules, dist, or massive .json data files). Because it's a private repo, the agent tries extra hard to "understand" the local context to give a good review, but it eventually hits a recursion limit and just spins its wheels until the backend kills the … Replies: 3 comments · 1 reply Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. Radi410 Mar 20, 2026 Since you're on a Individual sub and seeing those 6-hour hangs, you aren't hitting a "usage quota"you're hitting a Context Timeout. Basically, the Copilot Review agent is getting "lost" in your repo's dependency graph or a massive lockfile, and it doesn't have a graceful way to give up. The "Zombie Runner" Problem When a review hangs for 6 hours, it usually means the runner is trying to index files that should have been ignored (think node_modules, dist, or massive .json data files). Because it's a private repo, the agent tries extra hard to "understand" the local context to give a good review, but it eventually hits a recursion limit and just spins its wheels until the backend kills the process. The Support Hack You’re 100% right that the "Privacy" category is a black hole. If you want a human to actually look at your stuck runner logs, file the ticket under "Billing" and lead with: "I am paying for an Individual subscription but the Code Review feature is technically non-functional due to 6-hour timeouts." Billing tickets have a much stricter SLA and usually get a human eyes-on within 24 hours. Immediate Workarounds: Convert to Draft: Toggle the PR to a Draft and back to Ready for Review. This often forces the backend to kill any "zombie" processes attached to that specific PR ID and start a fresh runner. Audit your .gitignore: If you have large files or minified assets tracked in Git, Copilot will try to "read" them during the review. Ensure your workspace is lean. The "Small Batch" Test: Try a 1-line change in a new PR. If that fails too, your account’s specific worker queue is likely corrupted and needs a manual reset from GitHub Staff. Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. sbelectronics Mar 21, 2026 Author I've found that if I go into actions and start canceling the damn things, sometimes they'll generate output anyway. Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page. Rajveer-code Mar 21, 2026 Yeah, this sounds frustrating — especially since it used to work and then degraded over time. A few things based on similar issues people have run into with Copilot code review: This looks more like a backend/job issue than quota Long-running jobs (hours) + eventual timeouts usually point to: stuck workers / runners failed job scheduling or internal queue issues
Reported result
The automated review feature degraded from working normally to failing over 90% of the time, with runners hanging for up to 6 hours. Support tickets filed under 'Privacy' received no response, while community advice suggested filing under 'Billing' for faster SLA. The issue was resolved only after the user identified and deleted a large binary file from the repository, confirming the root cause was context overload rather than quota limits.
Human role
The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.
Limitations
GitHub Copilot's support ticket categories are limited to 'Billing' and 'Privacy', making it difficult to report technical feature failures directly. The review agent lacks graceful error handling for large binary files, leading to 'zombie runners' that consume resources until timeout. Users must manually audit .gitignore and repository contents to prevent context timeouts, as the tool does not automatically exclude non-code assets effectively.
Try it
Act as a DevOps engineer troubleshooting GitHub Copilot code review failures. My private repository [replaceable repo URL] is experiencing >90% failure rates with 6-hour timeouts on PR reviews. First, analyze the repository structure for large binary files or unignored assets (e.g., node_modules, dist, .iso files) that might cause context timeouts. Second, check GitHub Actions for stuck 'zombie' runners and cancel them if necessary. Third, propose a .gitignore update to exclude identified large files. Fourth, if the issue persists, draft a support ticket for the 'Billing' category stating: 'I am paying for an Individual subscription but the Code Review feature is technically non-functional due to 6-hour timeouts.' Finally, verify the fix by creating a minimal 1-line change PR and confirming the review completes within 5 minutes. Do not proceed with deleting files without my explicit confirmation.
Source reports are not independently verified. Publication date is the catalog publication date, not the original article date.