Eclipse Theia 1.68 IDE Integrates GitHub Copilot Support
Using GitHub Copilot is now easier, and AI agents can visually represent progress and use skills.
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EclipseSource has announced the release of Eclipse Theia 1.68, an open-source development platform for web and cloud-based tools. The current release allows the use of GitHub Copilot out-of-the-box and lets AI agents – still in alpha, use skills. In addition to numerous AI-related updates, there are also other innovations, including improvements to accessibility.
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Task Planning for Tracking
In Eclipse Theia, AI agents can visually represent the progress of multi-stage tasks through the new todo_write tool: They can create to-do lists that are displayed and updated in the chat window. Depending on their status, tasks receive icons for “not yet done,” “in progress,” or “completed.” To use the feature, the new agent mode, “Agent Mode (Next)” must be activated. This mode is characterized by performing coding tasks more effectively, reliably, and autonomously.
The development team provides an example: A prompt asks the AI agent to create a to-do list for cooking a meal and to pretend to execute the necessary steps.
(Image: EclipseSource)
GitHub Copilot in Eclipse Theia 1.68
Developers with an active GitHub Copilot subscription can now use it directly within the Theia IDE and in tools created with Theia AI. They do not need any additional API keys or subscriptions. Technically, this is enabled by the new @theia/ai-copilot package, which integrates GitHub Copilot as a language model provider into Eclipse Theia's AI framework, including authentication via OAuth.
The EclipseSource team demonstrates how the authentication process works:
(Image: EclipseSource)
Skills for AI Agents
As an alpha feature, AI agents in Eclipse Theia can now use Agent Skills. These consist of reusable instructions and domain knowledge that agents retrieve from SKILL.md files. Among other things, agents can automatically discover existing skills in the ~/.theia/skills/ directory, use specific skills via developer instruction using the command /skillName, or load skills as needed. For the latter, the variable {{skills}} can be used, which developers can insert into agent prompts.
Creating skills using the CreateSkill agent is also in alpha status. The AI chat interface is used to define project-specific skills. There, developers can describe the desired skill, and the agent will create a correctly structured SKILL.md file, including appropriate YAML frontmatter and Markdown content.
Updates for accessibility and VS Code Compatibility
For improved accessibility, focus navigation commands can now be used in the chat to navigate between input and responses via keyboard (Ctrl/Cmd+Up/Down). All chat buttons are now accessible via keyboard, and comprehensive ARIA attributes are available for screen readers.
In addition, compatibility with extensions for Visual Studio Code has been increased to API version 1.108.0, and the Theia team has fixed some bugs, as in the blog post announcing the release details.
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