VS Code leans into Copilot

Visual Studio Code’s latest stable release folds GitHub Copilot deeper into the editor, adding agent debug logs, terminal access for agents, and built-in Copilot chat. (code.visualstudio.com) Version 1.116 was published on April 15, 2026, and its release notes say developers can now inspect logs from current and previous agent sessions to trace what Copilot did and why. The same update lets agent sessions interact with any terminal session, not just a narrowly scoped command pane. (code.visualstudio.com) The release also adds a setting for Copilot CLI “thinking effort,” which lets users trade response speed for more reasoning steps, and it makes GitHub Copilot available in Visual Studio Code without installing the old GitHub Copilot Chat extension first. (code.visualstudio.com) GitHub has been moving Visual Studio Code toward agent-style coding for months, where the tool can inspect a codebase, edit files, run commands, and react to errors in a loop instead of only suggesting the next line. Microsoft said in April 2025 that agent mode would roll out to all Visual Studio Code users and could monitor terminal output while it worked. (code.visualstudio.com) That shift has accelerated in 2026. Visual Studio Code’s March and early April releases added Autopilot in public preview, browser debugging inside the editor, and per-session permission controls that apply to both local agents and Copilot CLI sessions. (github.blog) GitHub also pushed Copilot CLI beyond the local terminal this week. On April 13, 2026, GitHub launched `copilot --remote` in public preview, which lets users monitor and steer a running command-line session from GitHub on the web or in GitHub Mobile. (github.blog) GitHub’s documentation says remote access works from any browser and requires a running Copilot CLI session, with mobile support currently limited to the latest beta release of GitHub Mobile. For users on organization-managed Copilot plans, access can also be controlled by enterprise and organization policies. (docs.github.com, docs.github.com) The practical effect is that a developer can leave a long-running build, test, or refactor job on a workstation and respond to prompts or stop the session from a phone or another computer. GitHub described the feature as a way to “monitor progress” and “continue working” without staying at the original machine. (docs.github.com, github.blog) Taken together, the April releases put more of Copilot’s work inside Visual Studio Code and make its command-line sessions easier to supervise when the developer is away from the keyboard. (code.visualstudio.com, github.blog)