--- title: Getting Copilot to work in Docker Sandboxes | daily.dev description: GitHub Copilot fails to authenticate inside Docker Sandboxes unless you store a separate secret for the 'copilot' service. Following the official docs and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-copilot-to-work-in-docker-sandboxes-oec7fmh4n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Getting Copilot to work in Docker Sandboxes | daily.dev og:description: GitHub Copilot fails to authenticate inside Docker Sandboxes unless you store a separate secret for the 'copilot' service. Following the official docs and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-copilot-to-work-in-docker-sandboxes-oec7fmh4n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OeC7fmH4n.png og:image:alt: Getting Copilot to work in Docker Sandboxes og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Getting Copilot to work in Docker Sandboxes **[Damir's Corner](https://daily.dev/sources/damirscorner)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary GitHub Copilot fails to authenticate inside Docker Sandboxes unless you store a separate secret for the 'copilot' service. Following the official docs and storing only a 'github' secret caused a 401 'unauthorized: token authentication failed' error, because that secret only covers api.github.com, not api.individual.githubcopilot.com. The two secrets were split apart in mid-August. Running 'sbx secret set copilot --command gh auth token' in addition to the github secret made Copilot work without any issues the author could identify. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does GitHub Copilot fail with a 401 unauthorized error inside Docker Sandboxes? It happens because Docker Sandboxes requires a separate secret for the 'copilot' service used by api.individual.githubcopilot.com, distinct from the 'github' secret used by api.github.com. Storing only a github secret causes credential injection to be skipped for the copilot host, producing 'unauthorized: token authentication failed'. The two secrets were split apart in mid-August. _Developers debugging Copilot auth in sandboxed environments can find similar fixes through daily.dev._ ### How do I fix GitHub Copilot authentication in Docker Sandboxes? Store a GitHub CLI OAuth token as a secret under the 'copilot' service name, not just under 'github'. Run 'sbx secret set copilot --command "gh auth token"' in addition to the existing github secret. The gho_ prefixed OAuth app access token from GitHub CLI works for both services, unlike personal access tokens which reportedly cannot be shared between them. _Anyone wiring up Copilot inside containerized or sandboxed dev setups can track fixes like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Cloud and local sandboxes for GitHub Copilot now in public preview](https://daily.dev/posts/cloud-and-local-sandboxes-for-github-copilot-now-in-public-preview-p8docf0u3) · GitHub Changelog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GitHub Copilot supports server-to-server authentication](https://daily.dev/posts/github-copilot-supports-server-to-server-authentication-zexkmjrnw) · GitHub Changelog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Run AI Agents in GitHub Actions with Docker Sandboxes](https://daily.dev/posts/run-ai-agents-in-github-actions-with-docker-sandboxes-gdctkffi2) · Docker · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Local sandboxing in the GitHub Copilot app](https://daily.dev/posts/local-sandboxing-in-the-github-copilot-app-9czmuyxaf) · GitHub Changelog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#authentication](https://daily.dev/tags/authentication) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/getting-copilot-to-work-in-docker-sandboxes-oec7fmh4n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Getting Copilot to work in Docker Sandboxes","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-copilot-to-work-in-docker-sandboxes-oec7fmh4n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-copilot-to-work-in-docker-sandboxes-oec7fmh4n"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T06:27:19.282Z","dateModified":"2026-10-30T06:27:42.121Z","description":"GitHub Copilot fails to authenticate inside Docker Sandboxes unless you store a separate secret for the 'copilot' service. 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