Visual Studio Code 1.104: Agent Mode requests confirmation

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The August update for Visual Studio Code is now available. Under version number 1.104, Microsoft's free source code editor has several AI innovations on board, including automatic model selection in GitHub Copilot Chat, a new security layer for Agent Mode and the automatic use of AGENTS.md files. Other updates include colour-highlighted window borders under Windows and a preview for Git Worktree changes.

Automatic LLM selection in Copilot Chat

In the GitHub Copilot chat, developers can now select the Large Language Model (LLM) as a preview feature, which should offer optimal performance and a reduction in rate limits – as some models are more heavily used. This function will initially reach users with individual Copilot subscriptions and will be rolled out to all Copilot users over the next few weeks.

To activate automatic model selection, click on the Auto option in the model picker. VS Code will then decide between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and GPT-4.1 – if the developer's company has not blocked any of these models. The name of the selected model appears when hovering over the answer in the chat view.

Change confirmation for agent mode

Meanwhile, Agent Mode in GitHub Copilot has been given a new layer of security: it now requires explicit confirmation before making changes to sensitive files. Developers can specify which these are with the chat.tools.edits.autoApprove setting. Some files, such as those outside the workspace, are treated as sensitive files by default.

As an experimental feature, Agent Mode also automatically uses an AGENTS.md file – as a context for chat requests if it exists in the workspace root. An AGENTS.md file can be used to provide an agent with context and instructions.

Updates beyond AI

Thanks to the new window.border setting, Windows users can now add a coloured border to their VS Code windows. The colours can be adjusted depending on the workspace so that you can see at a glance which workspace is open in which window:

Another new feature relates to version control: a preview now shows the changes between Worktree files and the current workspace. To do this, right-click on a Worktree file to open the context menu in the Source Control Changes view. There you can then select Compare with Workspace.

After reviewing the changes, developers can then use the Migrate Worktree Changes... command from the command palette to merge all changes from a worktree into the current workspace. This should make it easier to work with multiple worktrees and selectively migrate changes to the main repository.

Further information on these and many other new features can be found in the official announcement.

(mai)