Changelog
VS Code + Copilot
VS Code with GitHub Copilot and coding agents
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Releases (7)
v1.145New
November 4, 2026
- •Copilot harness: The Copilot harness continues to be the default for new sessions in VS Code. It's our latest harness, built on the Copilot SDK, a shared foundation that helps align behavior, capabilities, and improvements across Copilot products. When you start a new session, Copilot in the harness picker indicates that the session uses the Copilot harness. In VS Code, you can keep Copilot harness sessions running in the background and access them from both the VS Code editor window and the Agents window. These sessions run through the Agent Host. To help you adopt the Copilot harness with your existing workflows, we've added a Local-to-Copilot harness transition guide. It covers customization compatibility, session continuity, and organization rollout and verification. Thank you for the feedback that continues to shape these improvements. Please continue filing issues about your experience, especially if a workflow or integration prevents your organization from moving off the Local harness. Learn how to work with the Copilot harness, or explore the architecture and workflows in the agent host blog post.
v1.144
October 28, 2026
- •Run and continue Copilot tasks in the cloud: Cloud sessions let you run Copilot tasks from VS Code without keeping your development machine online. Your repository and tools run in a managed environment on GitHub's infrastructure. From the Chat view in the editor window or the Agents window, you can: Select Cloud and choose a GitHub repository to start a task. Send follow-up instructions, respond to approval requests, and review the agent's changes. Reopen an existing cloud session from the sessions list to continue the same conversation. Your cloud sessions are also accessible from other Copilot clients. For example, you can check progress on GitHub.com or in the GitHub Mobile app, then return to VS Code to continue working. Cloud sessions use a separate workspace. Local uncommitted changes aren't automatically copied. The new cloud experience requires a paid Copilot plan and is subject to organization policies.
- •Route and orchestrate models with GitHub Copilot Fusion: Instead of picking a model for each task, select Copilot Fusion in the model picker and let Copilot intelligently route requests and orchestrate models for you. Copilot Fusion brings together Project HydraFusion's multi-model orchestration and Copilot auto model selection's task-aware model selection to balance performance and cost efficiency. For each request, Copilot Fusion chooses the models, reasoning effort, and execution pattern for your task. For example, one model completes a simple task, while for harder tasks one model drafts a solution and other models review or critique it. Hover over the effort level below a response to see which models were used. Choose an effort level to balance quality and cost: Standard for everyday coding work, High for more demanding tasks, and Max for the most complex tasks. You're billed for each model that Copilot Fusion uses at its standard rate. Through November 30, 2026, paid Copilot plans receive a 30% discount when using Copilot Fusion. GitHub Copilot Fusion is now generally available, with Copilot Fusion High and Max offered on Copilot Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise plans. To learn more, see our documentation on GitHub Copilot Fusion.
- •Image generation in Copilot (Preview): Setting: chat.copilot.imageGeneration.model Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders , chat.copilot.imageGeneration.watermark Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders . Agents can generate images from your prompts with GPT Image 2.5 Flare. Ask the agent to create an image for your website, a chat background, a new icon, or a website wireframe. You can also add an existing image as chat context and ask the agent to modify it or generate variations. The default image model is GPT Image 2.5 Flare. To disable image generation, set chat.copilot.imageGeneration.model Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders to off. Image generation requires access to the selected model and uses AI credits in addition to those used by the conversation model. Additionally, set chat.copilot.imageGeneration.watermark Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders to true to add a perceptible Made with AI watermark to your image.
- •Copilot harness as the default: The Copilot harness continues to be the default for new sessions in VS Code. It's our latest harness, built on the Copilot SDK, a shared foundation that helps align behavior, capabilities, and improvements across Copilot products. When you start a new session, Copilot in the harness picker indicates that the session uses the Copilot harness: In VS Code, you can keep Copilot harness sessions running in the background and access them from both the VS Code editor window and the Agents window. These sessions run through the Agent Host. Setting: chat.editor.workingSet.enabled Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders The Copilot harness records edits made through agent tools in a working set, so you can review and decide which changes to keep or undo, just like in the Local harness. Use the inline Keep and Undo controls in the editor for individual changes, or manage files and all pending changes from the working set above the chat input. Keep and undo are enabled by default in the editor window and remain experimental. Set chat.editor.workingSet.enabled Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders to false to show the Changes pill instead. Changes made through terminal commands do not appear in the working set. In the Agents window, use the Changes view to discard files. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared valuable feedback. This release includes more improvements shaped directly by your feedback. Please continue filing issues to let us know how the Copilot harness is working for you. Your feedback is a huge help and directly shapes the harness experience. Learn how to work with the Copilot harness, or explore the architecture and workflows in the agent host blog post.
- •Copilot Memory in the Copilot harness: Copilot harness sessions can now use Copilot Memory, the same cloud memory service that other Copilot surfaces like Copilot CLI, Copilot cloud agent, and Copilot code review also use. Agents recall relevant repository facts and your preferences when a session starts, and store new learnings as you work, so you don't have to repeat the same context in every new conversation. Memories are stored as repository facts, which are shared with others who have access to the repository, or as user preferences, which apply across your repositories. Ask the agent to remember a convention or preference, and state the scope when it matters: Copilot Memory is enabled by default and respects your Copilot Memory settings on GitHub and your organization's policies. You can review and delete your memories on GitHub at any time. Learn more about using memory with agents.
- •Connect services with Copilot connectors (Preview): Bring the Slack discussion behind a change, project context from Notion, or API documentation from Microsoft Learn into your agent sessions. Copilot connectors are GitHub-managed MCP servers that connect your agent to these services without local server setup or MCP configuration. Open Browse, choose Copilot Connectors in the source menu, and select Connect on a service. Authorize access in your browser. Connect once and reuse the connection across supported Copilot clients signed in with the same account. Connectors are enabled by default on all Copilot plans and work only with the Copilot harness. For Business and Enterprise, an administrator must enable Editor preview features. Your organization's MCP restrictions apply, and some services require administrator approval.
- •Richer editing for GitHub Copilot custom agents: When you customize agents for the GitHub Copilot harness, completions, hovers, and validation help you choose available models, tools, and skills and catch configuration errors before you run the agent. Models: The model attribute offers Copilot model IDs as a single value or an ordered list of preferences. Tools: The tools attribute offers Copilot tool aliases, such as read, edit, and execute, alongside qualified client and extension tools. Skills: The skills attribute offers available skills, with descriptions and source information in completions and hovers. Configuration validation: Copilot-specific attributes and nested structures, including hooks and agent-scoped MCP servers, have completions, hovers, and validation. Unknown models, tools, and skills are only flagged after discovery has finished, so valid values aren't marked as errors while inventories are still loading. Body features: In GitHub Copilot agent files, placeholders such as {{cwd}} and {{shellToolName}} are recognized and show hovers. Unknown placeholders and Local-only #tool: and #file: references are flagged.
- •Manage Copilot customizations with slash commands: You can manage plugins, MCP servers, and skills without leaving the Chat view in a Copilot harness session. Type /plugin, /mcp, or /skills followed by a space to see the available subcommands. Plugins: List, install, update, enable, disable, or uninstall agent plugins. Use /plugin marketplace to manage marketplaces, or /plugin install to choose a plugin to install. MCP servers: Use /mcp show, /mcp enable, or /mcp disable with a server name to inspect or manage your MCP servers. Skills: Use /skills info with a skill name to inspect an available agent skill. Completions suggest supported subcommands and relevant plugin, marketplace, server, or skill names. Available commands depend on the Copilot runtime, and results appear directly in chat. The following video shows browsing the vscode-team-kit marketplace and installing the Session timeline plugin with /plugin install.
v1.142
October 14, 2026
- •Copilot harness: The Copilot harness is powered by the Copilot SDK, a shared foundation that helps align behavior, capabilities, and improvements across Copilot products. In VS Code, the Copilot harness runs sessions through the Agent Host, which lets sessions continue in the background and be accessed from both the VS Code editor window and the Agents window. The Copilot harness has been available from the harness picker in the chat input. Based on overwhelmingly positive and valuable feedback, we're progressively rolling it out as the default harness for new sessions in VS Code. When you start a new session, Copilot in the harness picker indicates that the session will use the Copilot harness. Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback. We're actively using it to shape the experience. One example is reintroducing Ask as a built-in agent in the Copilot harness. Your feedback showed that a dedicated read-only experience remains valuable. Select Ask from the agent picker to use it. Learn how to work with the Copilot harness, or explore the architecture and workflows in the agent host blog post. If you have feedback or requests, please file an issue.
- •Automatically move policy-managed chats to Copilot Agent Host: Enterprise managed settings let administrators govern agent permissions and sandboxing. When your organization configures a nonempty permissions object or sets sandbox.enabled to true, VS Code now requires the Copilot harness in Agent Host for full chat sessions, to be able to enforce these policies. Opening an existing, unarchived Local chat automatically moves it to Copilot, preserving the transcript and unsent draft, including attachments. Nothing is sent automatically. The new chat uses its normal model and permission defaults under current organization policy. VS Code archives the original chat only after the new chat opens successfully. If you switch away while the move is in progress, the original stays unchanged and the unopened destination is removed. While these policies apply, Claude, Codex, and terminal chat are unavailable. Editor inline chat remains available for limited read and edit tasks. An empty permissions object or legacy policy alone does not trigger this migration. Administrators can temporarily opt out of automatic migration.
- •Manage Copilot permission modes independently: Administrators can permit Assisted while blocking Allow All, giving developers assisted approvals without bypassing permission checks. The Copilot permission picker reflects the modes permitted by your organization's managed settings. For example, merge this configuration into your unified managed settings: Use permissions.disableAssistedPermissionsMode to restrict Assisted independently. permissions.defaultMode supplies a starting default, not a restriction on the modes users can select. The legacy ChatToolsAutoApprove: false policy still blocks both Allow All and Assisted unless you configure explicit managed mode restrictions. Setting only permissions.defaultMode does not replace that legacy restriction.
v1.141
October 7, 2026
- •Copilot harness: The Copilot harness adds exciting new agent functionality to VS Code. It's powered by the Copilot SDK, so its behavior and capabilities are consistent with other Copilot products, including the standalone GitHub Copilot app and the Copilot CLI. To start using the Copilot harness, select it from the harness picker in the chat input. In this release, it might already be the default selection for you. You can continue working as you normally do. The harness runs in a dedicated agent host process based on the Agent Host Protocol (AHP), so you can connect to the same agent session from multiple VS Code windows. Learn how to work with the Copilot harness, or explore the architecture and workflows in the agent host blog post. If you have feedback or requests, please file an issue.
- •Continue local external Copilot sessions without reloading: New conversations from the Copilot CLI and GitHub Copilot app are now picked up automatically as external sessions as soon as you send the first request, even when the Agents window is already open. You can open and continue these conversations directly from the Agents window. Use the Created In and Created Externally filters to choose which conversations appear in the sessions list.
- •Sandboxing in the Copilot agent host: Settings: chat.agent.sandbox.enabled Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders Sandboxing gives you more control over what Copilot can access while working on a task. It limits how supported agent operations access files and network resources, and helps to reduce the impact of model mistakes, prompt injection, untrusted dependencies, and locally launched tool servers. Depending on the operation and platform, these restrictions use operating-system protections or checks within the agent host process. Sandboxing adds a layer of protection, but does not replace endpoint security or provide a standalone security boundary. Sandboxing is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. On Windows, required operating-system updates must be installed. Refer to Check platform availability for more details. To configure sandboxing for all your sessions, enable the chat.agent.sandbox.enabled Open in VS Code Open in VS Code Insiders setting. You can also control sandboxing at the session level with the Sandboxing for terminal toggle in the Permissions menu. You can further customize filesystem permissions and network access via their respective settings in VS Code. Sandboxing works with both local and connected remote sessions. For local sessions, restrictions are enforced on your machine. For remote sessions, they are enforced on the remote host where Copilot runs tools and commands. Filesystem permissions refer to paths on the machine running the agent. Locally launched MCP and language servers are sandboxed by default when sandboxing is enabled.
v1.140
September 30, 2026
- •Copilot harness: The Copilot harness adds exciting new agent functionality to VS Code while keeping the way you work familiar. It's powered by the Copilot SDK, so its behavior and capabilities are consistent with other Copilot products, including the standalone GitHub Copilot app and the Copilot CLI. To start using the Copilot harness, select it from the harness picker in the chat input. In this release, it might already be the default selection for you. You can continue working as you normally do. The harness runs in a dedicated agent host process based on the Agent Host Protocol (AHP), so you can connect to the same agent session from multiple VS Code windows. Learn how to work with the Copilot harness, or explore the architecture and workflows in the agent host blog post. If you have feedback or requests, please file an issue.
v1.133
August 12, 2026
- •Mix Anthropic and Copilot models in Claude sessions: Previously, a Claude session ran entirely through either your GitHub Copilot subscription or Claude's existing configuration, such as an API key. Switching providers required reconfiguring the agent host. Now, the model picker displays both groups, so you can switch providers between turns. The model you select is used for the next turn. Models under Anthropic bill your API key, and models under Copilot use your Copilot subscription.