The August 2026 cycle of VS Code, encompassing versions 1.132 through 1.135, brings substantial improvements to how developers manage AI agent interactions, review generated code, and work with extended conversations. The updates extend capabilities across agent orchestration, chat functionality, web browsing integration, and voice input handling.

Agent sessions and workflows

The Agents window now provides expanded functionality for organizing related conversations, monitoring agent behavior, and transitioning between user inputs and corresponding code modifications.

  • Position multiple chats in horizontal or vertical layouts to compare outputs or track agent progress, with layout persistence across session returns
  • Launch a /btw side chat that inherits the main conversation's context and prompt cache while the primary chat remains active
  • Navigate through chat history using the prompt timeline feature in the transcript gutter to jump to specific prompts and examine associated file modifications
  • Deploy agent customizations via plugins adhering to the Agent Plugins 1.0 specification across VS Code and other compatible agent platforms
  • Access the Agents window via an experimental setting without requiring GitHub authentication when Claude is set up with an API key
  • Toggle between Anthropic subscription models and Copilot subscription models within Claude sessions at any point
  • Resume recent Copilot or Claude agent sessions initiated in external applications through the Sessions list
  • Link multiple VS Code instances to a single agent session using Agent Host
  • Invoke the experimental /rubber-duck command in a Copilot Agent Host session to request an alternative model review for identifying overlooked considerations and boundary conditions
  • Display session metadata adjacent to chat using the default single-pane mode, with diffs that scale to fit available space

Developers can view a demonstration of these capabilities in the Agent Host introduction YouTube video.

Chat and review

Enhancements to chat functionality streamline locating content within extended dialogues and examining modifications made by agent-generated responses.

  • Search for text throughout the entire chat history with support for case sensitivity, whole-word matching, and regex patterns, eliminating the need for manual scrolling
  • Maintain visibility of the active prompt through chat sticky scroll, which anchors the current prompt while scrolling through lengthy exchanges
  • Examine Markdown diffs with rendered output through the experimental hybrid Markdown editor, merging diff viewing and Markdown editing into one interface
  • Change between standard and diff editors using the breadcrumb navigation in the Agents window
  • Adjust terminal output dimensions in Chat, with expanded output reflowing dynamically as the view width changes
  • Display token consumption per model by hovering the response footer to reveal input, cached input, and output token counts for each model interaction

Integrated browser

The integrated browser streamlines agent feedback on web content and enables real-time observation of local HTML modifications during development.

  • Annotate multiple HTML elements on a webpage to deliver specific interface feedback that agents can resolve in a single operation
  • Trigger automatic reloading of local HTML files to immediately display saved changes and agent modifications as files update on disk
  • Configure the integrated browser as the default editor for HTML files through the editor associations setting for users who primarily preview rather than edit local HTML

Dictation

The integrated dictation feature now accommodates multiple languages, project-specific terminology, and intelligent formatting for shell commands.

  • Record speech in multiple languages using an on-device model, with manual language selection or automatic detection by VS Code
  • Define user-level or workspace-level cleanup rules to ensure dictation adheres to project-specific terminology and formatting conventions
  • Apply shell-aware cleanup for terminal commands that preserves command syntax rather than converting spoken punctuation into literal characters

Complete details on all new features and improvements are available in the full release notes for VS Code 1.132, 1.133, 1.134, and 1.135. Developers can obtain the latest version and continue building with confidence.