Visual Studio Code August 2025 Update | Generated by AI
Visual Studio Code 1.104 (August 2025)
This release focuses heavily on AI enhancements for GitHub Copilot, improved security for AI tools, and productivity boosts across the editor and terminal. Here’s a breakdown of the key updates:
AI Features
- Auto Model Selection (Preview): Chat now automatically picks the best model (e.g., Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5 variants) based on performance and rate limits when “Auto” is selected; includes a 10% request discount for paid users.
- Confirm Edits to Sensitive Files: Agent mode requires user approval before editing system files, dotfiles, or anything outside the workspace; customizable via settings.
- Support for AGENTS.md Files (Experimental): Automatically incorporates workspace
AGENTS.mdas context for chat requests. - Enhanced Coding Agents Collaboration (Experimental): Better session management, GitHub integration, and delegation from TODO comments or chat.
- Terminal Auto Approve: Opt-in for safer command execution with warnings for risky actions like
curlorwget; new rules for approvals. - Math Rendering: KaTeX equations now render inline by default in chat responses.
- Improved #codebase Tool: Uses a new embeddings model for faster, more efficient semantic code search.
- Disable AI Features: New setting to hide and disable Copilot chat, completions, and suggestions globally or per workspace.
- Python-Specific AI Tools (Experimental/Preview): AI-powered hover summaries for undocumented symbols and a “Run Code Snippet” tool for in-memory execution.
Security
- AI Tool Safeguards: Expanded confirmations for sensitive edits, terminal commands, and global auto-approvals, with warnings and configurable rules to mitigate risks.
- Documentation: New guidance on security considerations for AI-powered development.
Productivity
- Chat View Defaults: Chat now opens by default in the Secondary Side Bar; customizable visibility.
- Terminal Improvements: Better IntelliSense (e.g., git completions, icons), sticky scroll, and actions in terminal editors/windows.
- Python Environments: Enhanced Pipenv support, environment variable injection from
.envfiles, and full IntelliSense in all Python documents. - Editor Tweaks: Configurable inline suggestion delay, tab index for keyboard nav, and window border colors on Windows.
- GitHub Pull Requests: Collapsible sidebar, TODO actions for Copilot, and submodule ignore options.
- Task and Terminal Support: Improved input handling, error surfacing, and shell integration timeouts.
Other Notable Changes
- Accessibility: Focus command for chat confirmations to aid screen readers.
- Languages: Removed built-in Bower.json IntelliSense (deprecated tool; migrate to npm/yarn).
- Extension Authoring: Proposed APIs for authentication challenges and secondary sidebar contributions.
- Deprecations: Settings like
chat.mcp.enabledmigrated; Bower support dropped.
For full details, check the official release notes.