Visual Studio Code 1.109 enhances agent capabilities with new skills, improved context management, and parallel multi-session support.
Microsoft has rolled out Visual Studio Code 1.109, the newest iteration of its widely used code editor. This update introduces a suite of agent-centric enhancements, focusing on improving optimization, extensibility, security, and the management of agent sessions.
Dubbed the January 2026 release and made available on February 4, VS Code 1.109 is ready for download across Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms at code.visualstudio.com.
With this release, Microsoft declares its ambition for VS Code to become the premier environment for multi-agent development. Significant new session management features now enable developers to run multiple agent sessions concurrently across various environments—local, background, and cloud—all accessible from a unified view. Users can effortlessly switch between sessions, monitor progress at a glance, and empower agents to operate autonomously.
Agent Skills, now a generally available and default feature, empower developers to encapsulate specialized functionalities or domain knowledge into reusable workflows. These skill folders house pre-tested instructions for specific areas like testing strategies, API design, or performance tuning, according to Microsoft.
Introduced as a preview feature, Copilot Memory enables developers to store and retrieve crucial information across different sessions. This enhancement allows agents to operate more intelligently, offering faster code search through external indexing. Users can activate Copilot Memory by setting github.copilot.chat.copilotMemory.enabled to true.
VS Code 1.109 also integrates Claude Agent support, offering developers direct access to Anthropic’s agent SDK. This release further supports MCP apps, which facilitate interactive visualizations within chat interfaces. Key security and efficiency updates include terminal sandboxing, an experimental feature that limits file and network access for agent-executed commands, and auto-approval rules, designed to bypass confirmation for routine, safe operations.
VS Code 1.109 builds upon the foundation laid by last month’s VS Code 1.108, which first introduced agent skills. Additional improvements in VS Code 1.109 encompass:
- Chat UX enhancements: Improved streaming provides real-time progress updates, while support for “thinking tokens” in Claude models offers deeper insight into the model’s processing.
- Coding and editing customization: Developers can now personalize the text color of matching brackets using the new
editorBracketMatch.foregroundcolor theme token. - Integrated browser preview: A new preview feature allows developers to preview and inspect localhost sites directly within VS Code, complete with DevTools and authentication.
- Enriched terminal interactions: Chat terminal commands now display more detailed information, including syntax highlighting and the active working directory. New settings enable sticky scroll customization and terminal usage in restricted workspaces.
- API finalization and proposals: Quick Input button APIs are now finalized, offering greater control over input placement and toggle states. Proposed APIs aim to empower chat model providers to define configuration schemas.
