Iteration Plan for April 2025 #245823

This plan captures our work in April 2025. This is a 4-week iteration. We will ship in early May.

Since mid-December, GitHub Copilot has been available for free for everyone. This allows us to treat AI support as an out-of-the-box experience in VS Code. Consequently, going forward, we'll cover our client-side work for Copilot in this plan, similarly to how we have been tracking our work on our Remote Extensions over the last years.

Endgame

• April 28, 2025: Endgame begins
• May 02, 2025: Endgame done

The endgame details for this iteration are tracked here.

Plan Items

Below is a summary of the top level plan items.

Legend of annotations:

Accessibility

• Accessibility issues, see query Megan Rogge (@meganrogge) team

Workbench

• 💪 Support JSON file as a policy backend on Linux vscode#148945 joshspicer
• Allow a setting to open secondary sidebar by default vscode#191202 Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero)
• Allow to set floating windows always on top vscode#200647 Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero)
• Allow to set floating windows compact vscode#246411 Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero)

Code Editor

• Add support for variable line heights vscode#147067 Aiday Marlen Kyzy (@aiday-mar)
• 🏃 Add support for multiple fonts in the editor vscode#237346 Aiday Marlen Kyzy (@aiday-mar)

Notebook Editor / Jupyter Notebooks

• History persistence for notebook find widget vscode#238923 Michael Lively (@Yoyokrazy)
• Support drag and drop a cell output into the chat vscode#245364 Michael Lively (@Yoyokrazy)
• 🏃 Explore rendering outputs in separate pane/view/editor vscode#143244 Michael Lively (@Yoyokrazy) Aaron Munger (@amunger)

Languages / Python

• UX and feedback for Shell Startup Environment Activation vscode-python-environments#227 Karthik Nadig (@karthiknadig)
• Fast create for Python Environments (for notebooks, PEP723, etc) vscode-python-environments#258 Karthik Nadig (@karthiknadig)
• uv in python devcontainers vscode-python#24961 Karthik Nadig (@karthiknadig)
• 💪 Get python for users with no python installed vscode-python#24963 Karthik Nadig (@karthiknadig)
• Update Python Environments README.md vscode-python-environments#259 Courtney Webster (@cwebster-99)
• 🏃 "New project" for python work Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)
  • use built-in templates, uv, poetry, conda to create new project templates for flask, fastapi, django, python package, and pep 723 style script vscode-python-environments#285 Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)
  • connect "New Project" to /new for copilot vscode-python-environments#286 Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd) Bhavya U (@bhavyaus)
• Redesign python environment tool and implement this tool and a package install tool for copilot vscode-python-environments#284 Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)
• Add support for branch coverage to python testing vscode-python#24976 Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)

Source Control

• Support diffing all changes in quick diff decorations vscode#60389 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)

Terminal

• ✋ 🏃 PATH issues when multiple extensions contribute environment vscode#245613 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
• Shell Environment load performance Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1) vscode#245695 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
• Nushell detection on Windows and Linux vscode#245698 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
• 🏃 Terminal REPL completions using LSP vscode#241167 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)

Tasks

• None.

API

• API proposals: query Johannes Rieken (@jrieken) Matt Bierner (@mjbvz)
• API finalization: query Johannes Rieken (@jrieken) Matt Bierner (@mjbvz)
• Support encoding-related utils in extension host vscode#242547 Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero)

Extensions

• Enable extension signature verification by default on Linux vscode#239579 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)
• Allow for ESM-extensions (NodeJS EH) vscode#245214 Johannes Rieken (@jrieken)

Extension Contributions

• GHPRI: Support Issue view vscode-pull-request-github#6765 Alex Ross (@alexr00)

GitHub Copilot

• Improve agent mode including improved MCP support Kai Maetzel (@kieferrm) team
• Improve next edit suggestions Alexandru Dima (@alexdima) team
• 🏃 Make language-specific context available to Copilot inline completions Dirk Bäumer (@dbaeumer)
• 🏃 💪 Explore anchored quick widget for mouse interactions to attach context vscode#238095 TylerLeonhardt
• 🏃 MCP: Better discovery/registry and one-click installation flow vscode#245717 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)
• Extensions tools: agentic ability to search and install extensions vscode#245864 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)

Engineering

• 💪 🏃 Support building the monaco-editor AMD variant from new sources vscode#234114 Henning Dieterichs (@hediet) Alexandru Dima (@alexdima)
• Implement the full macOS build job in arm64 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)
• Parallelize sign and test tasks in Windows, macOS and Linux build jobs vscode#245344 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)
• Support macOS jobs in PR builds vscode#245345 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)
• Inline Linux snap build job vscode#245876 João Moreno (@joaomoreno)

Electron

• 🏃 Crash issues, see query Robo (@deepak1556)
• Exploration: Electron 35 vscode#245420 Robo (@deepak1556)

Documentation

• Update Copilot customization content vscode-docs/issues/8240 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh)
• Add guidance about using Copilot for notebooks vscode-docs#8239 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh)
• ✋ Add guidance to API docs about running MCP server in extension vscode-docs#8216 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh)
• Polish BYOK content vscode-docs#8214 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh)

Deferred

• Improve large code cell execution experience vscode#246358 Michael Lively (@Yoyokrazy)
• Implement package install with permissions for Python Environments vscode-python-environments#136 Karthik Nadig (@karthiknadig) Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)
• Experiment with single repo SCM view vscode#245346 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)
• Support Copilot Chat in web vscode#245860 Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero)
• Electron: Page content resizes with noticable delay electron#36280 Robo (@deepak1556)
• Failed to execute 'createScriptURL' on 'TrustedTypePolicy' vscode#240780 Robo (@deepak1556)
• Migrate from unsupported paste execCommand in desktop vscode#239228 Robo (@deepak1556) Aiday Marlen Kyzy (@aiday-mar)
• 🏃 Investigation: Use tree-sitter for grammar colorization vscode#210475 Alex Ross (@alexr00) Henning Dieterichs (@hediet)
• Show Checkout main checkbox in PR creation view vscode-pull-request-github#6706 Alex Ross (@alexr00)
• 🏃 Update Conpty in VS Code vscode#224488 Daniel Imms (@Tyriar) Robo (@deepak1556)
• 🏃 Explore GPU rendering of the code editor vscode#221145 Daniel Imms (@Tyriar) Henning Dieterichs (@hediet)
• 💪 Finalize Related code vscode#126932 Connor Peet (@connor4312)
• VSCode freezing when adding folder to workspace while working on remote Linux machine vscode-remote-release#10168 joshspicer
• 💪 Resolve unique connection issues vscode-remote-release#10412, vscode-remote-release#6319, vscode-remote-release#6600 joshspicer
• ✋ Adopt pre-release extension query API support vscode#243072 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)
• Ensure pipelines can be retriggered vscode#231139 João Moreno (@joaomoreno)