Microsoft has just released the latest version of Visual Studio Code, version 1.116. For those who don’t know, VS Code updates come along weekly now. This time, Microsoft has included Agent Debug Logs for previous agent sessions, Copilot CLI thinking effort configuration, Terminal agent tools, and GitHub Copilot is now built-in so you can use AI tools without installing it as an extension.
The Agent Debug Log panel shows a chronological event log of all the agent interactions during a chat session, this allows you see what happens when you send a prompt and debug chat customizations. With VS Code 1.116, you can now view the log for the current session and previous sessions.
Additionally in this update, you can configure the thinking effort of reasoning models in Copilot CLI sessions with the language model picker. To use this feature, choose a reasoning model in the picker and select the arrow to show the available effort levels. The effort levels vary by model and non-reasoning models won’t show the arrow at all.
With this update, Microsoft says that the send_to_terminal and get_terminal_output agent tools now work with foreground terminals rather than just background terminals that were created by the agent. With this update, the agent can read output from and send input to any terminal visible in the terminal panel, such as a running REPL or interactive script.
Finally, Microsoft has decided to build-in the GitHub Copilot Chat extension into VS Code. This enables users to start using AI features right away and makes a lot of sense given how much of the release notes now pertain to AI features. Microsoft hopes that this change will help new users get started with VS Code.
You can grab this update from here or check for updates within the VS Code menus.