Visual Studio Code v1.99 Changelog

This update is all about making the AI assistant a true pair programmer. Instead of just giving you text, the AI can now use tools, read the web, and set up entire projects for you. This matters a lot for developers who want to save time on repetitive coding tasks and let the AI handle the heavy lifting.

What's new

• Agent mode for everyone: The AI can now act as an "agent," meaning it can actually do things for you, like running commands or fixing code across multiple files. You just have to turn it on in your settings.
• Custom AI tools (MCP support): You can now connect the AI to outside tools using something called Model Context Protocol (MCP). This is a fancy way of saying the AI can talk to outside apps, databases, or files to get the exact info it needs to help you.
• Web Fetcher tool: The AI can now grab information straight from public websites to answer your questions. It opens a hidden, behind-the-scenes browser to read the page and bring the facts back to you.
• Deep Thinking tool: The AI can now take a moment to "think" through complex problems step-by-step before it answers, making it much better at tough coding tasks.
• Code Usage tool: The AI can automatically track down where functions and classes are used in your project, helping it understand how your code fits together.
• Workspace Creator: The AI can now set up a brand-new project workspace from scratch for you, getting all the files and settings ready to go.
• Bring your own AI keys: You can now use your own API keys (special passwords that let you access different AI models) to chat with a wider variety of AI brains.

Improvements

• Next Edit Suggestions: The AI is now fully ready to predict what you're going to type next and suggest it to you, making coding faster.
• Less distracting AI edits: When the AI makes changes to your code, it now hides annoying error pop-ups and warnings while it works, so it doesn't interrupt your focus.
• Unified Chat experience: It's now much easier to switch between asking the AI a question, having it edit your code, or having it act as an agent—all from one single chat box.
• Faster remote search: If you are working on a project hosted on a server somewhere else, searching through all those files is now much faster and more accurate.
• Notebook editing: You can now use the AI to create and edit "notebooks" (special files that mix code, text, and results, often used in data science) just as easily as regular code files.

Fixes

• This release includes several security updates and bug fixes to keep your coding environment safe and running smoothly.

Breaking changes

No breaking changes in this release.