One argument I’ve heard is that VS Code is now a mature project. Because there just isn’t much left to be done to improve the core, you have directed your attention towards other features that will attract new users. And because agent-and-AI mania is still burning through the enterprise (and everyone’s budgets), agent-and-AI features are the order of the day.
But do these features really need to be IDE-level features? Instead of drastically retooling VS Code to support agents, and making AI features native elements of the IDE, shouldn’t the real mission be to support VS Code’s native extensibility? After all, VS Code was built to be extended, and thousands of AI add-ons — including GitHub Copilot and dozens of your own extensions — already take advantage of that.
Is all this really about what AI features VS Code can support natively, or is it more about making VS Code a default first point of contact for agents and AI — specifically GitHub Copilot? Is this less about developer convenience, and more about guaranteeing — however obnoxiously — that agents and AI tools always have a central place in VS Code?
