Change:
Testing the GitHub code spaces extension remote explorer and try clicking on any of the help and feedback items bug Nothing happens In the developer tools I see:
I cannot repro this, but I do see that after installing the Codespaces extension, if I click on any of the help and feedback items, no Codespaces-related entries are displayed
I can't repro the buttons being busted, and I can't repro no Codespaces-related entries either.
what version of Codespaces to you have installed? And, can you check that it's activated?
the codespaces extension isn't * activated anymore, so in a local window after installing the codespaces extension it shouldn't be activated.
I would still expect it to be activated after clicking on the Remote explorer help and feedback items though as we run a command (ex. github.codespaces.getStartedLink in the original issue).
This is a bug in the codespaces extension, it's because the extension doesn't declare in its or . This used to be fine because of * activation but after we removed that the extension no longer activates timely. I'll open a PR to fix.
Workaround is to switch to the GitHub Codespaces view in the remote explorer or execute any of its commands, which will cause the extension to activate.
Hm I'm still seeing this even after reloading. Codespaces version: v1.14.0. Currently not running
Even with my PR to the Codespaces extension, we need an additional fix in remote help land. Today there is a raced timeout of 500ms and we just return after that. Since the Codespaces extension now activates on demand (and usually takes more than 500ms to activate), this means that the empty string gets cached as its url value. Since the extension will eventually activate and the command will return a value, I'd propose that we update with the resolved value at that point. To the user this will manifest as the picker populating with more values as extensions finish activating (which IMO is fine as that is how our other menus behave as when clauses are evaluated for extension-contributed commands).
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This should be verifiable in the latest Insiders and with the latest GitHub Codespaces release from earlier today.
Are the repro steps just latest codespaces extension remote explorer to click on help/feedback items Or is there more to it?
yeah that's it!

Discussion:
if (url.authority) { this._url = this.urlOrCommand; } else { <del> const urlCommand: Promise<string | undefined> = this.commandService.executeCommand(this.urlOrCommand); </del> <ins> const urlCommand: Promise<string | undefined> = this.commandService.executeCommand(this.urlOrCommand).then((result) => { // if executing this command times out, cache its value whenever it eventually resolves this._url = result; return this._url; }); </ins> // We must be defensive. The command may never return, meaning that no help at all is ever shown! const emptyString: Promise<string> = new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(() => resolve(''), 500)); this._url = await Promise.race([urlCommand, emptyString]);