Microsoft shipped Visual Studio Code 1.134 on August 19, 2026. The update leans hard into AI-assisted coding. It adds a shared agent host, side-by-side chats, a prompt timeline, full-conversation search, and new HTML browser options. The release notes cover the full list. Here’s what stands out.
The marquee feature is a new agent host. It’s a dedicated process that runs your AI coding agents. The session belongs to that process, not to one editor window. So several VS Code windows can join the same session. Sessions even keep running with no client attached, as long as the host stays up. You can reconnect later from another window. The host runs locally or on a remote machine.
Under the hood, the host uses Microsoft’s Agent Host Protocol (AHP). AHP keeps session state in sync between the host and its clients. The host holds the authoritative state and pushes updates out. Microsoft designed it to be agent-independent.
Chats can now sit side by side. VS Code 1.134 adds chat groups. You can arrange related chats horizontally or vertically. A subagent chat can sit next to the main conversation. That lets you watch several streams of agent work at once. Drag a chat into a group, or open a new one beside the current chat. VS Code restores the layout and focused chat when you reopen or reload.
Long sessions get a new prompt timeline. It appears in the transcript gutter of the Agents window. Each marker stands for one prompt. That makes jumping around a long conversation much easier. When a prompt changed files, the marker can show the added and removed line counts. It also links to those changes. The sessions.chatTimeline.display setting controls it.
Chat also gains real search. Press Ctrl+F on Windows or Linux, or Command+F on macOS. It works in the Chat view, chat editors, and the Agents window. The search spans the whole conversation, not just what’s on screen. It can find text that hasn’t rendered yet. It also expands collapsed work summaries when a match sits inside. And it supports case matching, whole-word matching, and regular expressions.
Local HTML files get a new option too. You can associate them with the integrated browser. That makes the browser the default editor for HTML, instead of opening the source. Configure it via workbench.editorAssociations or the editor interface. Links from the browser view open in new tabs. So navigation won’t replace the browser tied to the original file.
There’s a small editor tweak as well. Hold Alt to turn the tab’s close button into Close Other Editors. That closes everything except one tab, with no context menu needed.
The agent host and the older extension host aren’t identical. Multi-window shared sessions, multiple chats per session, quick chats, and remote hosting all require the new agent host. Edits differ too. Agent-host sessions write changes straight to a session folder or worktree. You review the diffs, then commit, merge, or discard. Extension-host sessions keep the existing pending-change workflow.
VS Code 1.134 is the stable build from August 19, 2026. Developers who want earlier changes can still use VS Code Insiders.
See also: Mastering the Linux Command Line — Your Complete Free Training Guide
FAQ
When was VS Code 1.134 released? On August 19, 2026, as the stable build.
What is the new agent host? A dedicated process that runs AI agents. It owns the session, so multiple windows can connect to it.
Can a session keep running if I close the window? Yes. Sessions continue while the agent host stays active. You can reconnect from another window.
How do side-by-side chats work? Chat groups let you arrange related chats horizontally or vertically. Drag chats together, or open one beside another.
How do I search a conversation? Use Ctrl+F on Windows and Linux, or Command+F on macOS. It searches the whole conversation and supports regex, case, and whole-word matching.
How is agent-host editing different? Agent-host sessions apply edits to a session folder or worktree for review. Extension-host sessions use the older pending-change flow.
Where are the full details? In the VS Code 1.134 release notes.
