In another change, a collapsed mode has been added for Next Edit Suggestions (NES), a capability in which Copilot predicts the next edit. There also is more advanced code base search in Copilot. When developers add #codebase to a Copilot Chat query, Copilot helps find relevant code in a workspace for a chat prompt. Now, #codebase can run tools such as text search and file search to pull in more context from a workspace. Also new in Copilot Chat, a Copilot vision capability is in preview, for attaching images and interacting with images in chat prompts. Developers could, for example, encounter an error while debugging, attach a screenshot of VS Code, and ask Copilot to help resolve the issue.

Microsoft last month introduced an experimental agent mode for Copilot Edits in VS Code Insiders. With the VS Code 1.98 release, the company has made several UX improvements. Agent mode enables Copilot to automatically search a developer’s workspace for relevant context, edit files, check for errors, and run terminal commands. With the UX improvements, terminal commands now are shown inline, so users can more easily keep track of which commands were run, and users now can edit the suggested terminal command in the chat response before running it.

Visual Studio Code 1.98 follows Visual Studio Code 1.97, which also featured Copilot accommodations. Elsewhere in VS Code 1.98: