GitHub Copilot High Resource Usage Bug Report

[koen-dev]

GitHub Copilot High Resource Usage Bug Report

Description

After upgrading the GitHub Copilot extension to the version 1.82.51 in VS Code, the rg process is experiencing high CPU usage, specifically running at over 500% on an Apple M1 MacBook Pro. This issue becomes particularly apparent when working on larger projects, rendering the GitHub Copilot extension essentially unusable. It appears that this is not an isolated incident, as other users have reported similar experiences. Here is a link to a previous discussion on this topic: Previous Discussion Comment.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Upgrade the GitHub Copilot extension to version 1.82.51 (or later) in VS Code.
2. Open a larger project in VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension enabled.
3. Monitor the resource usage of the rg process.

Expected Result

The rg process should use a reasonable amount of resources, allowing for smooth and efficient operation of the VS Code and the GitHub Copilot extension even on larger projects.

Actual Result

The rg process is consuming excessive resources, specifically running at over 500% CPU usage. This leads to significant slowdown and makes it impossible to effectively use the GitHub Copilot extension, especially on larger projects.

Given the subscription model of the GitHub Copilot extension, the expectation is that this issue would be addressed, or at least acknowledged, by GitHub in a timely manner. Currently, that has not happened, which is a source of frustration.

[Akash1134]

Hi @koen-dev ,

Thanks for reporting this issue with such a great description. Apologies for the trouble caused.

I have shared this issue internally with the product team and they are looking into it.

Please note that issues like these need thorough investigation and enough votes to be able to identify as a bug and it will need some time. We do not have an ETA on our response for the outcome. That being said, this is on our radar and if we notice the issue to be more prevalent, we'll do the needful. 🙂

[koen-dev]

Hi @Akash1134,

Thanks for jumping on this so quickly, I totally get that these things can be a bit like hunting for a needle in a code-stack! No worries about the timeline, it's comforting to know it's in good hands.

Really appreciate the acknowledgement and the effort to look into this. Looking forward to hearing about any updates even if it isn't what I hope for.

[airtonix]

1.82.15 is the last version with normal cpu/gpu usage.

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/53846#discussioncomment-5922539

[iamobj]

High cpu usage, resulting in large cpu cooling fan speed, noise and computer slowdown, especially in multiple open vscode windows, the computer will become slow, because the cpu resources are occupied too much

I tried to use vscode remote development to free up my local computer, however Copilot is still taking up my local cpu resources

[marcossv9]

Having the same issue here with high cpu usage when copilot extension is enabled.. note that I'm running Ubuntu and not MacOS.

Here are the versions of my setup:

code --version
1.79.2
695af097c7bd098fbf017ce3ac85e09bbc5dda06
x64
---
cat /etc/lsb-release 
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS"
---
Github Copilot version: v1.94.220

The only way I could stop the high cpu usage was disabling the copilot extension..

[marcossv9]

The way I ended up resolving this, was by adding this parameter to vscode settings:
"search.followSymlinks": false
Hope it helps.

[ashleybartlett]

This worked for my use case. Seems like a workaround. Might not be an option for everyone, as some repo's feature symlinks.

[mhpolymath]

I just adde the copilot to VSCode and my MacBook Pro of 4 years has turned its fans for the first time ever. can you explain to me how to use this and what exactly does it do?

[matthew-heyner]

Run ps aux | top and kill the copilot extension using all your CPU... Every time my fans spin up it's 9 times out of 10 copilot...

[pierre-cm]

I'm exepriencing same issue when running github.copilot.generate command.

When I try to log the command line of the process causing excessive memory and cpu usage i get the following:

$ cat /proc/79906/cmdline
/usr/share/code/code--ms-enable-electron-run-as-node--max-old-space-size=3072/usr/share/code/resources/app/extensions/node_modules/typescript/lib/tsserver.js--useInferredProjectPerProjectRoot--enableTelemetry--cancellationPipeName/tmp/vscode-typescript1000/018118fd9725797d1978/tscancellation-3f34ff507dbd39ee5a10.tmp*--localeen--noGetErrOnBackgroundUpdate--validateDefaultNpmLocation--useNodeIpc

It seems that it is somehow related to the way the extension is interracting with TypeScript Language Service.

copilot version
v1.94.220
code --version
1.79.2
695af097c7bd098fbf017ce3ac85e09bbc5dda06
x64

[ashleybartlett]

I've run into this problem today while getting setup on a new monorepo.

This is the rg command consuming CPU on my laptop:

/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules.asar.unpacked/@vscode/ripgrep/bin/rg --files --hidden --case-sensitive --no-require-git -g **/.copilotignore -g !**/.git -g !**/.svn -g !**/.hg -g !**/CVS -g !**/.DS_Store -g !**/Thumbs.db --no-ignore --follow --no-config --no-ignore-global

Deciphering this command, it believe it's looking for .copilotignore files, and is not respecting ignore options.

I ran the above command directly, and it looks like some of our node modules have circular dependencies, which are causing excessive recursion. Even though rg has some detection for this and stops before going around the world again, if it keeps on hitting this problem it would significantly extend the runtime of this command.

copilot version: v1.99.289
vscode version: 1.80.1
74f6148eb9ea00507ec113ec51c489d6ffb4b771
x64

[ashleybartlett]

I did a quick test, and I ran the same command, excluding **/node_modules/** and the command finished almost instantly. I tried to be specific to one module, but there were more circular references than I had expected!

/Applications/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules.asar.unpacked/@vscode/ripgrep/bin/rg --files --hidden --case-sensitive --no-require-git -g '**/.copilotignore' -g '*/.git' -g '!**/.svn' -g '!**/.hg' -g '!**/CVS' -g '!**/.DS_Store' -g '!**/Thumbs.db' --no-ignore --follow --no-config --no-ignore-global -g '!**/node_modules/**' 

[koen-dev]

This is definitely it! It looks like what ever you put in a .copilotignore it isn't correctly being passed on to the rg command.

@Akash1134 any updates from your side perhaps about the issue in general or the issue mentioned above?

[ashleybartlett]

ah, so it's not the .copilotignore existing itself, it's due to a large number of node_modules that have circular depedencies in a monorepo. From what I was able to determine, my inference is that this file lookup is using a standard VSCode helper lookup function, based on the existing search or files libraries. I think this, as when I set "search.followSymlinks": false" in my vcscode settings, it uses that flag on the lookup, and so works.

[matthew-heyner]

Any updates on this? I'm still experiencing high CPU usage on Copilot version v1.133.0.

[mbtools]

Some details and possible solutions:

Version: 1.84.2 (system setup)
Commit: 1a5daa3a0231a0fbba4f14db7ec463cf99d7768e
Date: 2023-11-09T10:51:52.184Z
Electron: 25.9.2
ElectronBuildId: 24603566
Chromium: 114.0.5735.289
Node.js: 18.15.0
V8: 11.4.183.29-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045
GitHub Copilot extension: v1.138.0

The process triggered on my machine and consuming 100% CPU is

"c:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\node_modules.asar.unpacked\@vscode\ripgrep\bin\rg.exe"
	--files
	--hidden
	--case-sensitive
	--no-require-git
	-g **/.copilotignore
	-g !**/.git
	-g !**/.svn
	-g !**/.hg
	-g !**/CVS
	-g !**/.DS_Store
	-g !**/Thumbs.db
	-g !**/.nyc_output
	-g !**/coverage
	-g !/.idea
	-g !/storage_default_storage
	-g !/.yarn
	--no-ignore
	--follow
	--no-config
	--no-ignore-global

There are a few relevant VSCode settings:

Files: Exclude

Search: Exclude

Exclude Git Ignore

.vscode/settings.json (part of the project)

Now you can see how the command parameters are composed.

I did not have Exclude Git Ignore on, but activating it didn't influece the search by the Copilot extension. Our .gitignore definitely includes node_modules but the extension doesn't exclude it as expected.

Adding node_modules to file exclusions (either as setting or in settings.json in project) does work and lets the rg.exe process finish quickly.

{
  "files.exclude": {
    "**/node_modules": true,

However, I believe the Copilot extension should respect the Exclude Git Ignore setting in this case (and not make everyone change settings). Thanks!
Marc

[loren-garcia]

Totally worked! Thanks!!

[matthew-heyner]

Bump

[dineshdaultani]

I am having a similar issue in the Github Copilot: v1.148.0. Problem is related to the RAM usage, I have 64GB RAM available on a remote server and after installing copilot in the remote server/container, gradually the extension is occupying around 10-20GB of RAM memory. After disabling the extension and reloading the workspace, sometimes memory becomes available again, but not always.

[Konano]

Same with me

[jacobshirley]

Also getting high CPU usage through rg from Copilot. files.exclude works but it hides those files in my editor which I don't really want. Ideally, Copilot would use the .gitignore file as others have suggested

[OriginalEXE]

@Akash1134 Any chance you could re-prioritize this one? It seems like it's affecting a good chunk of people, and there is no real workaround that doesn't negatively affect some other functionality.

Thanks!

[w4ffl35]

I think @mbtools is correct and came here to post the same.

1. On Ubuntu the ripgrep process is causing the same issue.
2. Disabling all extensions fixes the issue.
3. Enabling Copilot again causes the issue
4. Examine by getting pid and using ps aux|grep <pid> - see that nothing in my .gitignore file is being respected, see that all settings are set correctly and my project's .gitignore is in the correct place
5. Uninstall VS Code Insiders and reinstalled, issue persists
6. Manually added exclude files as per @mbtools - everything works fine

Started (or became noticeable) today after I updated Ubuntu, but I didn't update VS Code Insiders (was already on the latest as of this writing code-insiders_1.86.0-1705991583_amd64.deb)

[wind57]

I am quitting on it. I can live without those suggestions, but otherwise I can't do anything in my IDE.

[pilaoda]

My temporary solution:
Add **/node_modules/**/node_modules in files.exclude.
This break the infinite directory loop but still reserve first level node_modules for my need.

[nsainaney]

I ran Help: Start Extension Bisect and the culprit for me was github.copilot.chat which is a companion extension. Removing this extension solved the high CPU issue. I'm on an M2 Max and the thing drained my battery (which usually lasts about 14hrs) within 2 hrs!

[mbtools]

Thanks for adding more proof. I'm at a loss on how to get more attention to this issue 🤷‍♀️

[illmattic-1]

I'm having this issue after vscode updated to v1.88. I am using CoPilot v1.178.

This issue only occurs when I have a big project opened. I tried the solution mentioned by @mbtools but it isn't helping.

"files.exclude": {
        "**/.git": true,
        "**/.svn": true,
        "**/.hg": true,
        "**/CVS": true,
        "**/.DS_Store": true,
        "**/Thumbs.db": true,
        "**/node_modules": true,
    },

Any help would be appreciated.

[mbtools]

Copilot scans all folders that are not excluded. Look whether you have other folders with many files that are not relevant for copilot and exclude them as well.

[illmattic-1]

This works but it kind of defeats the purpose because I have to remove so much of my project before it returns to normal that it becomes inconvenient. Before I had the same size project and it wasn't an issue but now when I click the copilot chat, the CPU usage runs up to 80% for VSCode before coming down to a min level of 45% and stays there while my cursor shows that it is continuously loading/buffering. I have a i5-9400 CPU @ 2.90 GHz

[GregWoods]

It sounds like a new "copilot-exclude" setting is needed

[cnicodeme]

A year later and this is still an issue :/

[scottw-finao]

I'm getting a similar issue in PHP storm. copilot sub process is currently consuming 30gb almost 3x what the java process for phpstorm itself is using.

[cnicodeme]

That's it, I'm switching to cursor and cancelling my copilot subscription. If they won't fix it, why pay?

https://github.com/settings/billing/summary <= to cancel your subscription to Copilot

[mbtools]

Yesterday I thought the performance issue was gone. Then I realized that I was in Cursor 😂

[christoph-cieslik-sybit]

Hi everyone, I and my coleages have also a problem using copilot in idea (java projects). The copilot plugin is claiming that much memory that either the tomcat or idea is being killed by the system caused by out of memory (ubuntu). After disabling the copilot plugin the problem is gone. We also saw, that on September 2 the copilot-language-server process used about 43MB, today it uses >10GB of memory.

[rocketraman]

Yes, at the moment on my machine, the copilot-language-server is using 482G of virtual memory, and 27G of resident memory.

[Konano]

Same here

[christoph-cieslik-sybit]

Ok, solution for now: downgraded the copilot plugin version to [1.5.28.7313]. Using the older version works for me for currently. But I cannot say whether it can solve problems for the other of you.

Download it here and "install plugin from disk" in idea.
https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/17718-github-copilot/versions

[sureshg]

On IntelliJ, I had to disable the plugin as it kept consuming excessive memory and killing other processes. copilot-language-server consumes ~8GB and 1000 platform threads 😳 . After the latest update, the plugin became unusable.

[raegen]

A funny fact is that, it's actually consuming quite a bit of memory in IDEA even when the extension itself is not authorised