Microsoft has announced the general availability of Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14, introducing agent mode for GitHub Copilot code assistant, among other enhancements. The agent mode enables Copilot to perform complex, multi-step tasks when editing code.
One of the highlighted features of this release is the introduction of agent mode for GitHub Copilot. This new mode allows developers to interact with Visual Studio using natural language, enabling the AI to perform complex, multi-step coding tasks. The agent can understand the entire codebase, recognise and fix errors, suggest and execute terminal commands, and analyse runtime errors. This feature is currently in public preview and it can be enabled in Visual Studio preview settings.
Agent mode in Visual Studio Copilot (source: Microsoft)
For example, the Copilot is now able to understand a task that requires changes that are scattered throughout the solution, such as ‘replace the use of HttpClient with IHttpClientFactory in the solution’. It seems that developers are positively surprised by the capability and accuracy of the changes the new Copilot agent mode can do, according to comments on Reddit.
Additional enhancements to GitHub Copilot in this release include:
- MCP Support (in preview): Model Context Protocol (MCP) support provides structured access to tools, data, and resources outside Visual Studio, acting as a universal adapter for AI applications.
- AI Documentation Comment Generation: Automatically generate documentation comments for C++ and C# by simply typing the trigger for doc comments (for example, typing
///in C#). - Next Edit Suggestion (NES): This feature predicts the next edit, whether it's an insertion, deletion, or a mix of both, anywhere in the source code file. The autocomplete was limited to the point of insertion of the cursor, but NES allows related changes anywhere in the file, such as declaring and using variables in different lines.
Version 17.14 adds several improvements for debugging and diagnostics for applications, especially for the ones built for Windows. Developers can now see changes in their .NET MAUI and WPF app UI in real time. A new Mono debug engine for .NET MAUI is integrated into the Visual Studio Core debugger. LINQ expressions now include hovering tips. The .NET Allocation Tool now identifies zero-length array allocations, helping optimize memory usage and performance.
C++ developers also get improvements in this version. The most important one is dynamic debugging capability, allowing developers to debug an optimised application build. It will be dynamically de-optimised in the background, allowing access to the variables and code structures as they are in the source code. Previously, it was required to perform a non-optimised build for debugging. Other C++ improvements are support for C++ 23 enhancements and automatic template argument population. The community feedback from the C++ community is mainly commending the reduced build speed.
Microsoft is accelerating its release cadence for Visual Studio GitHub Copilot enhancements and deeper integration powered by AI features. New updates will be released monthly instead of three months release cadence for standard Visual Studio updates.