github pull request icon keep disappearing from the vscode tool bar (left pane)

[ebith-nexthink]

Type: Bug

keep getting disappeared from the tool bar

Extension version: 0.155.2026070604
VS Code version: Code 1.127.0 (4fe60c8b1cdac1c4c174f2fb180d0d758272d713, 2026-06-30T10:52:33+02:00)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200
Modes:

[PatilHrushikesh]

facing same issue

[nickshore]

It disappears if you have not checked out a valid PR branch.

[Jamie-Thelin]

Frequently seeing the same issue on a branch that does have a valid PR open.

Did some digging in the log ...\AppData\Roaming\Code\logs\20260730T085751\window2\exthost\GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github\GitHub Pull Request.log and saw the following (blanked out specifics of repo/branches):

2026-07-30 11:01:22.730 [info] [Review+0] Switch to Pull Request #7231 - done
2026-07-30 11:01:22.730 [info] [Review+0] Validate state in progress
2026-07-30 11:01:22.730 [info] [Review+0] Validating state...
2026-07-30 11:01:22.893 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Found GitHub remote for folder <repo-directory>
2026-07-30 11:01:22.893 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Using in-memory cached assignable users.
2026-07-30 11:01:24.210 [info] [Review+0] Found matching pull request metadata on GitHub for current branch <checked-out-branch>. Repo: <current-repo> PR: 7492
2026-07-30 11:01:24.210 [info] [PullRequestGitHelper] associate <checked-out-branch> with Pull Request #7492
2026-07-30 11:01:25.515 [info] [Review+0] Found matching pull request metadata for current branch <checked-out-branch>. Repo: <current-repo> PR: 7492
2026-07-30 11:01:25.515 [info] [Review+0] current branch <checked-out-branch> is associated with pull request #7492
2026-07-30 11:01:25.515 [info] [Review+0] Resolving pull request
2026-07-30 11:01:26.904 [info] [GitHubRepository+0] Fetch branch <non-main-staging-branch> - enter
2026-07-30 11:01:27.290 [info] [GitHubRepository+0] Fetch branch <non-main-staging-branch> - done: true
2026-07-30 11:01:27.290 [info] [Review+0] Resolved PR #7492, state is MERGED
2026-07-30 11:01:28.113 [info] [Review+0] Found matching pull request metadata on GitHub for current branch <checked-out-branch>. Repo: <current-repo> PR: 7492
2026-07-30 11:01:28.113 [info] [PullRequestGitHelper] associate <checked-out-branch> with Pull Request #7492
2026-07-30 11:01:29.502 [info] [Review+0] This PR is merged

Our setup has a long-lived staging branch alongside a main, and feature branches will always get at least one PR into this staging branch before the a final PR into the main branch is closed.

In these logs I was trying to checkout PR 7231 (which is into the main branch), but seemingly the extension is favouring the more recent, but now merged, 7492 (into the staging branch), and doesn't show the Active Pull Request view.

I would expect:

1. When asked to checkout a PR explicitly (i.e. through the UI or GitHub Pull Requests: Checkout Pull Request by Number), that exact PR should be shown in the Active Pull Request view, and not an already closed PR from the same branch
2. When a branch is checked out, for the pull request extension to default to the PR into the main branch, again not an already closed one.

As a workaround I can see changes still by expanding the individual PR in the main Pull Requests view, but this is much less ergonomic and doesn't show individual commits, for example.

[spokeydokeys]

I have the same issue and took a look with claude's help at the logs. Here's the outcome of that investigation:

The extension host never restarts — it starts at 21:39:38 and is still the same host logging at 22:04:51. Auth never drops either. Nothing crashes.

The smoking gun is at 21:49:01.917:

21:49:01.114 [Review+0] Polling for state change...
21:49:01.453 [Review+0] Polling detected potential new PR activity while a PR is active. Refreshing state.
21:49:01.455 [Review+0] No matching pull request metadata found locally for current branch task/claude/...
21:49:01.917 [Review+0] Skipping GitHub check for branch ...: no new PRs since last check
21:49:01.917 [Review+0] No matching pull request metadata found on GitHub for current branch ...
21:49:01.917 [PullRequestTree] Removing PR #22041 from tree

The extension deliberately tears down its own view. It's not vanishing — it's being removed.

The mechanism, comparing against the successful resolution at startup:

At 21:39:41 the first validateState also said "No matching pull request metadata found locally" — but then it fell through to the GitHub check, found PR #22041, and called PullRequestGitHelper.associate to cache the branch↔PR mapping. That association normally lands in git config as branch.<name>.github-pr-owner-number. You're on vscode-vfs://github+.../*****/crab — the Remote Repositories virtual filesystem, which is a read-only API-backed FS with no git config to write to. So the association evaporates silently.

Then on every subsequent poll, two things combine into a trap:

1. Local lookup fails (association was never persisted).
2. The Skipping GitHub check: no new PRs since last check optimization short-circuits the fallback that saved it the first time.

Result: "no PR on this branch" → Removing PR #22041 from tree → focus mode context key flips false → the whole Active Pull Request view, comment controller, and status bar item all disappear. And it never recovers: 21:52:46 and 21:59:05 both run the same validation and reach the same conclusion, with the backoff climbing to 600s.

Two other things worth flagging in the log, neither causal:

• 21:39:59.013 [error] Error querying GraphQL API (LatestUpdates): Network error — this is the same query family that feeds the "no new PRs since last check" decision. A failed LatestUpdates at init may be seeding a bogus watermark that makes the skip fire unconditionally. If you can reproduce this cleanly, that correlation is the most valuable thing to put in a bug report.
• Error parsing assignableUsers/mentionableUsers cache for origin — corrupt globalState in vscode-userdata:. Cosmetic (affects @-mention autocomplete), but it suggests your globalStorage for this extension is in a bad state generally.

Practically: there's no setting that disables the state poll, so your options are to reload the window each time it drops (Ctrl+R — it re-resolves correctly on activation every time), or do PR review somewhere with a real git config, where the branch association actually persists. Codespaces or desktop both dodge this entirely.

[spokeydokeys]

It disappears if you have not checked out a valid PR branch.

I haven't found this to be the case. I get to the vscode.dev interface by pressing . when viewing a PR in github, which automatically checks out the branch in vscode.dev.

[zadjii-msft]

I've been seeing this as well for the last ~week in vscode.dev as well. Makes reviewing PRs with it basically impossible, because you have no idea when the extension might just explode (even in the middle of typing up a comment).

My logs look like the following:

2026-08-03 14:45:31.714 [info] [Review+0] Skipping poll: window is not focused
2026-08-03 14:47:04.534 [info] [Review+0] Skipping poll: window is not focused
2026-08-03 14:47:42.580 [info] [Review+0] Skipping poll: window is not focused
2026-08-03 14:47:53.825 [info] [PullRequestTree] Review threads have changed, refreshing Files node
2026-08-03 14:47:53.825 [info] [PullRequestTree] Review threads have changed, refreshing Commits node
2026-08-03 14:47:53.826 [info] [PullRequestTree] Getting children for Files node
2026-08-03 14:47:53.826 [info] [PullRequestTree] Got all children for Files node
2026-08-03 14:48:09.678 [info] [Review+0] Polling for state change...
2026-08-03 14:48:09.977 [info] [Review+0] Polling detected potential new PR activity while a PR is active. Refreshing state.
2026-08-03 14:48:09.978 [info] [Review+0] Validate state in progress
2026-08-03 14:48:09.978 [info] [Review+0] Validating state...
2026-08-03 14:48:09.978 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Found GitHub remote for folder \microsoft\PowerToys
2026-08-03 14:48:09.979 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Trying to use globalState for mentionableUsers.
2026-08-03 14:48:09.979 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Using in-memory cached assignable users.
2026-08-03 14:48:09.979 [info] [Review+0] No matching pull request metadata found locally for current branch dev/mjolley/relevance-harness
2026-08-03 14:48:09.991 [error] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Error parsing mentionableUsers cache for origin.
2026-08-03 14:48:09.991 [info] [FolderRepositoryManager+0] Using globalState mentionableUsers for 1.
2026-08-03 14:48:10.334 [info] [Review+0] Skipping GitHub check for branch dev/mjolley/relevance-harness: no new PRs since last check
2026-08-03 14:48:10.334 [info] [Review+0] No matching pull request metadata found on GitHub for current branch dev/mjolley/relevance-harness
2026-08-03 14:48:10.334 [info] [PullRequestTree] Removing PR #49195 from tree
2026-08-03 14:48:10.389 [info] [PullRequestTree] Comments have changed, refreshing Files node
2026-08-03 14:48:10.389 [info] [PullRequestTree] Comments have changed, refreshing Commits node
2026-08-03 14:48:10.405 [info] [Review+0] Polling detected change. Next poll in 300s.
2026-08-03 14:48:10.964 [info] [PullRequestTree] Review threads have changed, refreshing Files node
2026-08-03 14:48:10.964 [info] [PullRequestTree] Review threads have changed, refreshing Commits node

I'd guess the smoking gun is

2026-08-03 14:48:10.334 [info] [Review+0] No matching pull request metadata found on GitHub for current branch dev/mjolley/relevance-harness

Even though I'm very sure that branch and PR still exist.

Might be because it's a stacked PR I'm looking at? But that may also be a red herring.