Anurag is an experienced journalist and author who’s been covering tech for the past 5 years, with a focus on Windows, Android, and Apple. He’s written for sites like Android Police, Neowin, Dexerto, and MakeTechEasier. Anurag’s always pumped about tech and loves getting his hands on the latest gadgets. When he's not procrastinating, you’ll probably find him catching the newest movies in theaters or scrolling through Twitter from his bed.
I’ve used VS Code for half a decade, but recently I’ve been switching between it and Cursor. VS Code is a good editor, but it lacks some of the agentic features that draw me to Cursor. I use Cursor extensively for development alongside Claude, and its own Composer models are quite good for coding. VS Code already supports agentic workflows through extensions like Claude Code and Codex, along with GitHub Copilot. You can get a lot done with these tools, but the overall experience hasn’t quite matched what I get from Cursor.
Microsoft’s dedicated Agents window closes much of that gap. It gives agent sessions their own space, with tools to manage work across projects and review changes. I can delegate tasks from this window and return to the regular editor when I need to work directly with the code. That brings many of the agentic features I use in Cursor into VS Code, giving me fewer reasons to leave the editor and extension ecosystem I’ve used for years.
I can keep my projects in one window
Switching between them is also easy
When you ask an agent to make changes, you spend more time following its work and answering questions. Cursor already has a dedicated interface for this workflow, and I like that VS Code now offers something similar without needing another extension.
I can start an agent session for one repository and open another for a different project without launching a separate VS Code window for each. Both sessions appear in the sidebar under their respective projects, along with their progress and whether they need input. You can leave one running and switch to the other, or open them side by side if you want to follow both. The files and terminal belong to the selected session, so switching projects also brings up the workspace associated with that conversation.
For example, you could have one agent fix a bug in one repository, and another add a feature to a different project. You don’t have to finish one conversation before starting the next or keep returning to separate editor windows to check on them. Cursor already offers this through its Agents Window, and having it in VS Code removes one reason I use a separate editor.
If both tasks involve the same repository, you can give each session its own Git worktree. This creates separate working copies where the agents can make changes without immediately touching the files in your main workspace. Opening two chats alone doesn’t provide that separation, since both can still edit the same files.
You can choose your agents and models
You don’t need to stick with what Microsoft offers
The best thing about VS Code's agent window is that you're not entirely at Microsoft's mercy. You can choose Copilot, Claude, or Codex as the harness for a session, with a separate selection of models available for each. Since I already use Claude alongside Cursor, I like having access to Anthropic’s agent harness within VS Code. Selecting a Claude model through Copilot still uses Copilot’s tools and agent workflow. Choosing the Claude harness uses Anthropic’s Agent SDK, including its supported tools and customizations.
You can then choose an available model based on the work you’re assigned. The selection depends on your harness, account, and configured providers. There’s also support for bringing your own model credentials, although BYOK in Agent Host sessions is still experimental. The session also includes controls for what the agent can do without asking you. You can configure approvals for supported tools and commands, and use project instructions to specify coding conventions or how changes should be tested. Those settings depend on the harness, so an existing configuration won’t necessarily work identically across all three.
Once the agent makes changes, you can open the diffs and leave feedback against a selected range of code. That lets you point directly to the implementation you want changed instead of copying it into another prompt and explaining where it belongs.
I have fewer reasons to leave VS Code
VS Code is now a complete platform
VS Code has been my go-to development tool, but I felt it lagged behind in AI features, even though Microsoft started calling it an open-source AI code editor long ago. It now feels like a complete platform thanks to the Agents window.