Rhea Patel presents the September roadmap for integrating AI, agentic tools, and GitHub Copilot within Visual Studio, outlining major enhancements for developers, including new agents, customizable modes, and improved DevOps integrations.

Roadmap for AI and GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio: September Update

Author: Rhea Patel
Source: Visual Studio Blog

Overview

Microsoft’s Visual Studio team shares their September roadmap for advancing AI-powered, agent-driven experiences in the IDE. The focus is on making developer tools smarter, faster, and more intuitive with deep integration of GitHub Copilot, new agent-based debugger and profiler experiences, smarter code completions, and expanded support for customization and DevOps workflows.

Key Roadmap Features

1. AI-Powered Debugging and Profiling

  • Profiler Agent and Debugger Agent: New agentic tools leveraging AI to streamline debugging and profiling workflows. These integrate both built-in and extension-provided modes to handle more complex, context-driven coding scenarios.

2. Copilot Chat and Customization

  • Custom Modes for Copilot Chat: Developers can tailor their workflow integrations and chat experiences within Visual Studio using improved customization features.
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP) in All Modes: MCP enables advanced workflow support, including security, governance, prompt templates, resource handling, and sampling.

3. Enhanced Agent Mode & Chat

  • Performance & Feedback: Faster code mapping across models, better progress indication, and agent mode as default for chat.
  • Expanded Functionality: Running tests from chat, improved context retention with project memories, and support for instruction files.
  • User Control: Options to disable built-in tools and redirect agent mode mid-response for enhanced control and flexibility.

4. Model Support and Bring Your Own Key

  • Latest Model Integrations: Copilot now supports new models such as Claude Opus 4.1 and GPT-5 Mini, plus bring-your-own-key options for models like Azure Foundry and custom endpoints.

5. Deep DevOps Integration

  • Azure Agentic DevOps: Agentic workflows combine with Azure and GitHub for streamlined build, deployment, and management. Features include:
    • Automatic Azure MCP installation (Public Preview)
    • 1P Azure MCP installation (planned for Visual Studio 2026)
    • CI/CD via GitHub Actions & Azure DevOps to Azure App Service for .NET
    • Custom modes for Azure developers

6. Editor and Productivity Enhancements

  • Copilot-Powered Code Completions: Improved suggestion mechanisms, predictive edit suggestions, and new Copilot keyboard shortcuts.
  • All-In-One Search with Copilot: Enhanced code search and action features powered by Copilot, including context menu integration.

Getting Involved

Developers are encouraged to provide feedback through the Visual Studio Developer Community links provided in the original article. Emerging features will roll out in upcoming Visual Studio updates.

Links to More Information:

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