VS Code Agents Evolve: Persistent Sessions and Visual Tools

Visualizing Agent Outputs Speeds Validation

Panelists demoed the new image and video carousel in agent chats, addressing the pain of scrolling through long threads after agents generate screenshots or videos (e.g., Playwright tests or app store mocks). Enabled via the experimental chat.imageCarousel setting, it centralizes media for quick review—first check visuals, then code. Burke noted: "You want to pop into a chat and be like, did the thing do what I want? And quickly validate that as a first thing."

James extended this by showing inline artifacts in prototypes, where markdown, images, or videos appear at response ends, opening full carousels on click. For Tiny Tool Town or research tasks producing multiple assets, this prevents clutter. Trade-off: Experimental status allows A/B testing prompts, but expect default enablement soon.

Copy buttons enhance sharing: "Copy all" grabs full threads, "Copy final response" isolates outputs. Burke explored gists or web pages (like Coil CLI's share), tying to PR workflows: regenerate PRs from copied prompts instead of editing, as "sometimes it's easier to just regenerate it rather than iterate."

Custom Agents and Plan Modes Unlock Flexibility

James live-coded a "plan-save-md" agent by copying the built-in plan prompt, adding a rule: "At the very end... always save the plan in a plans folder." This persists plans across sessions, solving requests like auto-saving MVP summit plans. Handoffs (e.g., "start implementation") and tool configs (add documentation) make it workspace-specific.

Built-in plan mode limits tools for planning; custom copies let users override. Pierce emphasized ongoing prompt improvements via telemetry: "We actually have like our plan agent... receiving regular updates... based off what we see with... resolution rates and time to complete."

Troubleshoot skill (/troubleshoot) analyzes chat logs for errors, distinguishing user vs. agent faults. James: "When something goes wrong... who you gonna call? Hashtag troubleshoot." Viewable in real-time via skills explorer, it scales debugging without release notes.

Workspace search now defaults to semantic indexing for #codebase (vs. prior TF local), leveraging Copilot embeddings for large repos. GitHub and Azure DevOps supported; arbitrary remotes incoming. Blog charts prove accuracy gains, foundational for agent code understanding.

Agent Host Protocol Enables Cross-Device Continuity

Core innovation: Decouple agent runtime from client UX. Burke explained: "What if we separated out the actual agent runtime... from the UX?" Agents persist post-VS Code close, resume on reopen. Extend to cloud (Azure Container Apps): Access sessions from laptop, desktop, VS Code.dev via SSH.

Solves multi-device gaps—no state on new machines, unlike session-share links lacking full history. James tied to cross-OS builds: Mac apps on Windows via persistent environments, dodging Linux runner limits for Xcode/MSBuild.

Sandboxing adds background notifications for terminal commands, ensuring agents run isolated. Changelog parsing (AI-generated Insiders notes from 200 daily PRs) surfaces these: mscode-loginsiders or docs repo. Double-AI refines for VS Code changelog.

Sneak peeks hint browser integration (drag command palette center), TypeScript agent support, and PR prompt distillation.

Key Takeaways

Enable chat.imageCarousel now for agent media review; prototype inline artifacts for seamless in-chat previews.
Copy built-in plan prompts to create custom savers: Append rules like "always save the plan in /plans" for persistence.
Use /troubleshoot on failed agent turns; customize plan tools (e.g., add docs) but update from upstream.
Leverage semantic #codebase search for large repos; check GitHub Copilot embeddings blog for benchmarks.
Experiment with Agent Host Protocol alphas for session continuity—deploy to cloud for true anywhere access.
Parse changelogs via mscode-loginsiders or Show Release Notes for daily Insiders insights.
Regenerate PRs from copied prompts over manual fixes for faster iteration.
Drag command palette to center for better UX; feedback on default browser globe icon.

Notable Quotes:

Burke on carousels: "If the agent works for like 5-10 minutes... you don't want to be scrolling up through the chat thread. That's not really a good way to partner with agents."
James on custom plans: "Hit this little copy button... paste that in... at the very end... always save the plan... Now I'm in plan, save, plan mode."
Pierce on plan evolution: "The built-in plan mode is also like receiving regular updates... how can we build you a better plan that will give you better outcomes."
Burke on Agent Host Protocol: "You could say... this could just run on my machine... close VS Code and the agents keep running... deploy this to... Azure Container Apps. Now... it's there everywhere."
Burke on PRs: "If something's wrong with the PR it's actually easier to just regenerate it rather than iterate... if you have the initial prompt then you can... clean up these two things... Regenerate it. Great code looks good boom merged."