How to install GitHub Copilot in VS Code, August 2026 releases

What happened

GitHub Copilot in VS Code has had a productive August 2026, with four releases spanning v1.132 through v1.135 that collectively tighten the day-to-day experience of working with AI-assisted development. The updates are not dramatic rewrites but are the kind of incremental, targeted improvements that compound over time: better session organization, cleaner change review, and smoother navigation through long agent conversations.

If you have been putting off updating your Copilot extension or your VS Code installation, August is a reasonable moment to catch up. The quality-of-life improvements introduced this month address real friction points that builders encounter repeatedly, which makes the upgrade worth the few minutes it takes.

The August 2026 cycle delivered releases v1.132 through v1.135 of GitHub Copilot in VS Code. The core theme running through all four releases is usability around agent sessions. Agent Host received updates that make it more capable and more predictable to work with. On top of that, the releases introduced improvements to how you review changes surfaced by the agent, how you navigate conversations that have grown long, and how sessions themselves are organized. These are not isolated features but a coordinated effort to make the agent workflow feel less like managing a chatbot and more like working with a capable collaborator inside your editor.

How it works

The most consequential changes for anyone building with Copilot agent sessions are the organizational and navigation improvements. Long conversations have historically been difficult to navigate once they accumulate context, and these releases address that directly. You can now move through extended sessions without losing your place or having to scroll back through large blocks of output to find a specific exchange.

Change review has also been updated. When the agent proposes or applies changes to your codebase, the interface for inspecting and accepting those changes is more coherent than in previous releases. This matters when you are running multi-step agent tasks and need to stay confident about what has actually been modified.

Agent Host itself received updates that affect how it runs and what it can do. Builders who rely on Agent Host as the execution environment for their agent tasks will find it more capable in this cycle. The specific shape of those changes is tied to the v1.132 through v1.135 progression, so if you are running an older extension version, you may not have access to the full Agent Host improvements until you update.

Why it matters

Open VS Code. Go to the Extensions panel by clicking the blocks icon in the sidebar or pressing the keyboard shortcut for Extensions. In the search bar, type GitHub Copilot. You will see two extensions listed: GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat. Check both for available updates.

If an update is available, you will see an Update button next to the extension. Click it. VS Code will download and install the new version. Once installation finishes, VS Code will prompt you to reload the window. Do that before testing anything, because some changes only take effect after the reload.

If you are doing a fresh install, click Install on both the GitHub Copilot extension and the GitHub Copilot Chat extension. You will need a GitHub account with an active Copilot subscription. After installing, sign in through the VS Code account prompt that appears.

Who is affected

To confirm which version you are running after the update, click the gear icon next to the extension name in the Extensions panel and select Extension Details. The version number is displayed there.

Keep VS Code itself up to date as well. Go to Help in the top menu, then select Check for Updates. The August 2026 Copilot improvements were built against v1.132 through v1.135, so running an older VS Code build may limit what you can access even if the extension is current.

The Agent Host changes in this cycle mean that if you are running automated scripts or tooling built against older Agent Host behavior, you should test those against the updated extension before relying on them in production workflows. Behavior that was implicit in earlier versions may have been made explicit or reorganized.

What to watch next

If you manage VS Code in an enterprise environment where extensions are controlled or pinned, confirm with your tooling configuration that the updated extension versions are permitted. Pinned or allowlisted extension versions will not receive the August updates automatically.

Users on older VS Code builds may find that some of the session organization and navigation features either do not appear or behave differently. The releases were validated against the corresponding VS Code versions, so the combination matters.

The trajectory of these releases points toward Agent Host continuing to gain capability in subsequent months. The work on session organization and change review that shipped in August reads as foundational rather than final, meaning future releases are likely to build on top of what landed here. Watching the GitHub Changelog for September releases will tell you whether the agent workflow improvements continue at the same pace or shift focus elsewhere.