Problem
The Copilot CLI 25M effective-token per-run hard cap (CAPIError: 429 Maximum effective tokens exceeded) is a recurring, dominant failure mode (tracked in #35661). It re-escalated on 2026-06-02, hitting Daily Firewall Logs Collector (run 26796384191, 25,666,412 / 25,000,000) and Smoke Copilot (run 26788943047, 25,499,262 / 25,000,000) — per the Daily Agentic Workflow Audit (#36398).
When this signature fires, the harness currently retries 5× (~83–92s each via --continue). A --continue retry re-sends the full conversation, so it can never recover a hard cap — every retry re-crosses it. This burns ~7–8 minutes of runner time per failed run for zero chance of success.
Suggested fix
Detect the isMaxEffectiveTokensExceededError signature (Maximum effective tokens exceeded) and fail fast — skip the retry loop entirely and exit with a clear, classified error message instead of retrying 5×.
Acceptance criteria
- A run that hits the 25M effective-token cap exits within one attempt (no 5× retry).
- The failure is classified distinctly (not a generic 429) in logs/failure reporting.
- ~7–8 min/run of wasted retry time is eliminated for affected workflows.
Source
Daily Agentic Workflow Audit — 2026-06-02 (#36398), recommendation 1; tracking issue #35661.
Identified by DeepReport intelligence run §26831651673.
Generated by 🔬 DeepReport - Intelligence Gathering Agent · opus48 3.1M · ◷
Problem
The Copilot CLI 25M effective-token per-run hard cap (
CAPIError: 429 Maximum effective tokens exceeded) is a recurring, dominant failure mode (tracked in #35661). It re-escalated on 2026-06-02, hitting Daily Firewall Logs Collector (run 26796384191, 25,666,412 / 25,000,000) and Smoke Copilot (run 26788943047, 25,499,262 / 25,000,000) — per the Daily Agentic Workflow Audit (#36398).When this signature fires, the harness currently retries 5× (~83–92s each via
--continue). A--continueretry re-sends the full conversation, so it can never recover a hard cap — every retry re-crosses it. This burns ~7–8 minutes of runner time per failed run for zero chance of success.Suggested fix
Detect the
isMaxEffectiveTokensExceededErrorsignature (Maximum effective tokens exceeded) and fail fast — skip the retry loop entirely and exit with a clear, classified error message instead of retrying 5×.Acceptance criteria
Source
Daily Agentic Workflow Audit — 2026-06-02 (#36398), recommendation 1; tracking issue #35661.
Identified by DeepReport intelligence run §26831651673.