Visual Studio Code previews AI-powered code editing

by | Nov 4, 2024 | Cloud

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code is previewing Copilot Edits, a feature powered by GitHub Copilot that suggests changes across multiple files in a workspace based on the developer’s prompts. Copilot Edits and other new Copilot-powered capabilities arrive with Visual Studio Code 1.95, also known as the October 2024 version of the code editor.

Visual Studio Code 1.95 was published October 29 and can be downloaded for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

With Copilot Edits, users can start an AI-powered code editing session to iterate on code changes. Based on the user’s prompts, Copilot Edits proposes changes across multiple files in a workspace. The edits are applied directly in the editor, so they can be reviewed in-place, with the full context of surrounding code.

Also with Visual Studio Code 1.95, the multiple GitHub accounts capability, which allows users to be logged into multiple GitHub accounts simultaneously, graduates from a preview last month to default behavior. Multiple GitHub accounts support enables situations such as using one GitHub account for Settings Sync and a second account for the GitHub Pull Request extension. Or, developers could use one account for the GitHub extension and a second account for GitHub Copilot.

Visual Studio Code 1.95 follows the October 3 release of VS Code 1.94, which improved file search. VS Code 1.95 has already triggered a VS Code 1.95.1 point release, which addresses three issues in the release.

Other features and improvements in Visual Studio Code 1.95:

  • The new default location for the GitHub Copilot Chat view is now the secondary sidebar, which keeps Copilot open and ready to go while developers work. Users can keep Copilot Chat open at any time, while still having other views available such as File Explorer or Source View.
  • A new GitHub Copilot code review capability allows developers to get fast, AI-powered feedback on code as it is written, or to request a review of all changes before pushing. This feature currently is in preview.
  • Users now can more conveniently generate documentation for Python code with a Pylance docstrings template generation feature. This feature currently is behind an experimental setting.
  • The Settings editor now displays indicators next to experimental and preview settings.
  • Support has been improved for the upcoming TypeScript 5.7 language release.