– Agent Sessions Day on Feb 19th

February 2026 Insiders (version 1.110)

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Last updated: February 23, 2026

These release notes cover the Insiders build of VS Code and continue to evolve as new features are added. To try the latest updates, download Insiders. To read these release notes online, go to code.visualstudio.com/updates.

You can still track our progress in the Commit log and our list of Closed issues.

These release notes were generated using GitHub Copilot and might contain inaccuracies.

Happy Coding!

February 23, 2026

  • The model picker in chat has been redesigned with sections for recent models and search functionality. #293875

February 20, 2026

  • You can now fork a chat conversation to explore alternative approaches while preserving the original conversation thread. Use the /fork command to create a new session that inherits the current conversation context. #291481

  • Claude Agent now supports MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. MCP servers installed via VS Code or the Claude CLI are automatically picked up, enabling extended tool capabilities. #287660

February 19, 2026

  • The editor accessibility help dialog now includes information about notification-related keyboard shortcuts and actions. #296063

  • The askQuestions tool now works in subagent contexts, enabling subagents to prompt users with interactive questions during task execution. #294949, #293745

  • The context window usage control is now shown for Claude Agent sessions, giving you visibility into remaining context space. #290899

February 18, 2026

  • The integrated terminal added support for the Kitty graphics protocol, enabling applications to display inline images directly in the terminal. #286141

  • Chat session history headings (such as 'Today', 'Yesterday', 'This Week') show the number of sessions for each group. #291606

February 17, 2026

  • Show tip to switch to a more recent model version. The tip includes a quick action to switch models directly from the chat input area. #295848

  • The integrated terminal now reports pixel dimensions during resize, enabling programs that require pixel-level screen size information to work correctly. #295819

  • Questions in the chat question carousel now render as Markdown, so formatting like code spans, bold, and italic displays correctly. #295649

  • Screen readers are now notified when chat steering occurs. When you send a new prompt while a response is still generating, the steering divider is announced via an ARIA status alert. #295240

  • A new keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+T / Cmd+Shift+T) lets you toggle focus to the agent to-do list, improving accessibility for screen reader users. #293527

February 16, 2026

  • Better integration of inline chat and Code Action (lightbulb) functionality. #290829

February 14, 2026

  • You can now hide the context window usage indicator in the chat input area. A new setting lets you opt out of seeing the indicator that shows remaining context space, reducing visual clutter. #293578

February 13, 2026

  • The upgrade control takes precedence over chat tips in the welcome area, ensuring you see the most actionable message first. #295248

  • Chat tips have a navigation toolbar with next, previous, and dismiss buttons, making it easier to cycle through and manage tips. #295172

  • The integrated terminal adds support for OSC 99 desktop notifications and a setting to enable notifications. #294247

  • Pressing Cmd+W / Ctrl+W when chat is maximized now unmaximizes the chat instead of closing the entire window. #293051

  • You can now send a new chat prompt while a question from the agent is pending, allowing you to steer the conversation without needing to answer the question first. #292018

  • Improved the extension install experience from cloud agent sessions. #290997

  • You can now scroll chat content by using the scroll wheel on the left and right margins of the chat view, not just when hovering directly over the chat messages. #252193

February 12, 2026

  • Chat tip dismissed state is now per profile. When you dismiss a tip in one profile, it stays dismissed only for that profile instead of applying globally across all profiles. #294682

  • On Windows, the Status Bar now shows VS Code download and installation progress instead of just displaying "Installing update...". #293872

  • The chat.autoReply setting now applies to question carousel prompts in chat, enabling automated responses to carousel questions. #294714

  • JavaScript and TypeScript settings are being consolidated under a unified js/ts.* namespace. #292934

February 11, 2026

  • The context window usage control in chat is now actionable. When you approach the context window limit, the control provides recommendations for managing context, including the ability to manually trigger conversation compaction to summarize older conversation history and free up context space. #291961

  • Chat tips are now accessible to screen readers. A new keybinding (Ctrl+Shift+/ / Cmd+Shift+/) toggles focus between the chat tip and the chat input, and tips are announced via an ARIA status alert when they appear. #293505

  • When a tool returns a large amount of data, the output is now written to a temporary file on disk instead of being truncated. This allows the model to selectively read relevant portions of the output, improving response accuracy and reducing token usage. #283112

  • Fixed a bug where the chat terminal agent would inadvertently open the alternate screen buffer, disrupting the terminal experience. #294252

February 10, 2026

  • Chat tips are now context-aware and automatically hide once you've already used the suggested feature. Ten new tips were added covering custom agents, skills, message queueing, YOLO mode, Mermaid diagrams, GitHub repos, subagents, context usage, and sending to a new chat. #290019

  • Chat tips now include a hint about message queueing, so you can discover the ability to send follow-up messages while the agent is still responding. The tip is contextually hidden once you've already used the feature. #293536

  • Chat tips now have a context menu with options to dismiss the current tip and cycle to the next one, or to hide tips entirely. #293507

  • Terminal shade and block characters now render correctly at all cell sizes by supporting offset variants, fixing visual misalignment where patterns did not tile seamlessly across cells. #293529

  • Claude Agent now supports image attachments in chat prompts, enabling you to paste or attach images for the agent to analyze. #293474

February 9, 2026

  • Claude Agent now renders subagent invocations. When the Claude Agent spawns subagents to help complete tasks, you can now see the tool calls and progress from those subagents during streaming. #290062

  • The chat.tools.terminal.sandbox.network setting now supports inheriting from the Trusted Domains list, so allowed domains do not need to be configured separately. #293329

February 7, 2026

  • Claude Agent sessions are now filtered by workspace. For single-folder workspaces, only sessions matching that folder are shown. For multi-root workspaces, sessions matching any of the workspace folders are displayed. Empty windows show all sessions. #290242

February 6, 2026

  • Claude Agent now supports terminal output viewing. You can view the output from commands run by the Claude agent, similar to the local Copilot agent. #290845

  • Added setting to configure read access to external folders in chat. The new chat.additionalReadAccessFolders setting allows you to specify folders outside the workspace that read-only agent tools can access. #293386

  • Accessible view now remembers cursor position when closing and reopening while content is dynamically streaming. Previously, reopening the accessible view would reset the cursor to the top of the text. #293257

  • VS Code now respects metered network connections. When connected via mobile data or tethering, VS Code postpones automatic updates for itself and extensions. A new proposed API allows extensions to detect metered connections and adjust their network activity accordingly. #103451, #288954

February 5, 2026

  • Add setting to control the scroll behavior in the Settings editor, offering continuous or paginated. Paginated will restrict the settings shown to only those in that category. #291391

  • Improved accessibility help for find and filter dialogs. Press Alt+F1 to access comprehensive accessibility help across all find and filter experiences, including Editor Find/Replace, Terminal Find, Webview Find, and panel filters. The help provides context-specific information about keyboard shortcuts, navigation, and behaviors. #292367

  • Fixed spurious "No results" announcements in the find control. Screen readers no longer announce "No results" when the search input is empty and aria-labels now only update when the find widget is visible. ARIA hints announce "Press Alt+F1 for accessibility help" once when focusing find input. #292375

  • Support queuing prompts in chat conversations. You can now submit a second prompt while the first is still running, and it will be automatically processed once the current task completes. This is useful when your next prompt depends on the result or code changes made by the current prompt. #260330

February 4, 2026

  • Improved chat askQuestion carousel now has improved accessibility. ARIA labels have been added, keyboard focus can be moved to the container, and focus no longer automatically moves to the first response. A new command and keybinding is available to focus the first response in screen reader mode. #292917

  • Add support for the text blink attribute in the integrated terminal. #292550

  • Add support for color scheme reporting in the integrated terminal, allowing programs to query the terminal's current color palette. #290919

  • Populate the Find control input in the integrated browser with the currently selected text on the page, matching standard browser behavior. #291378

  • Show download progress information when downloading a VS Code update. #277330

February 3, 2026

  • Terminal performance has been improved with updates to xterm.js, including optimizations for rendering and processing. #292572

  • Respect session list filters in the agent sessions Quick Pick and welcome page. If you have specific agent types filtered out from the session list, they will also be excluded from the Quick Pick when switching sessions. #291603

February 2, 2026

  • Improved screen reader accessibility for quick input dialogs. ARIA attributes are now dynamically set only when the list is active, preventing redundant announcements. The Go to Line dialog (Ctrl+G) now provides proper screen reader announcements for characters typed and list item navigation. #292353

  • Selecting Hidden terminal in the terminal dropdown now directly opens the terminal when there is only one hidden terminal, instead of showing a quick pick menu. #291884

  • Fixed an issue where the terminal output panel in chat would auto-collapse on command success even when manually expanded. The panel now respects the user's manual expand state and remains expanded after successful command completion. #291120

January 30, 2026

  • The chat question carousel UI now uses a list-style selection interface similar to QuickPick instead of native radio buttons and checkboxes. This provides better visual consistency with other VS Code selection UIs across platforms. #291328

We really appreciate people trying our new features as soon as they are ready, so check back here often and learn what's new.