Iteration Plan for January 2026 #286040

This plan captures our work in January 2026. This is a 4-week iteration. We will ship in early February.

Endgame

• January 26, 2026: Endgame begins
• January 30, 2026: 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

• Glob matching should be case insensitive vscode#10633 Dmitriy Vasyura (@dmitrivMS)
• Investigate improvements for Simple Browser vscode#277298 Kyle Cutler (@kycutler) Joaquín Ruales (@jruales) Alex Britez (@unthinkmedia)
• Integrated Browser V1 vscode#286579 Kyle Cutler (@kycutler) Joaquín Ruales (@jruales) Alex Britez (@unthinkmedia)
• Rollout Windows 11 Explorer context menu item to Stable vscode#204696 Robo (@deepak1556)
• Rollout improved Windows update flow to Stable vscode#281963 Robo (@deepak1556)
• 🏃 Support in-context Quick Pick interactions vscode#238095 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru) TylerLeonhardt
• 🏃 Portable mode improvements Dmitriy Vasyura (@dmitrivMS)
• 🏃 Metered network connections support Dmitriy Vasyura (@dmitrivMS)
• 🏃 Update UI improvements Dmitriy Vasyura (@dmitrivMS)

Code Editor

• Hover on keyboard modifier should trigger instantly vscode#276558 Ben Villalobos (@benvillalobos)
• Fix important self host issues with experimental GPU acceleration project Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)
• 🏃 Allow configuring font family, font size and line height via syntactic tokens vscode#263545 Aiday Marlen Kyzy (@aiday-mar)

Languages

Python

• Use environment extension api when executing Python code and file vscode-python#25687 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
  • Create terminal api does not return activated terminal for command type vscode-python-environments#1078 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
  • Ctrl+c immeditately issued upon run, execution cancelled by activation command vscode-python-environments#640 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
• 🏃 Various bug fixes for Python Environments Extension vscode-python-environments-query Eleanor Boyd (@eleanorjboyd)

Terminal

• Remove winpty support node-pty#842 vscode#284519 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
• Implement kitty keyboard protocol vscode#286809 Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)
• Implement win32 input mode vscode#286896 Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)
• ✋ 🏃 Conpty issues Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)
  • Ship newer version of conpty vscode#224488 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1) Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)
  • Issues from conpty on Windows 25H2 vscode#243584, vscode#241978 vscode#274372 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1) Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)
• 🏃 Implement kitty graphics protocol vscode#286141 Anthony Kim (@anthonykim1)

API

• API proposals: query Matt Bierner (@mjbvz) Alex Ross (@alexr00)
• API finalization: query Matt Bierner (@mjbvz) Alex Ross (@alexr00)

Source Control

• 🏃 Git: Support setup steps for new worktrees vscode#276834 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru)

AI

Chat

• Allow creating new sessions from chat input vscode#284091 Benjamin Christopher Simmonds (@benibenj)
• Chat: Improve model management UI vscode#270143 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)
• Address chat performance problems for longer chats vscode#286610 roblourens Connor Peet (@connor4312)
• Render progress as tool calls stream in vscode#278640 Logan Ramos (@lramos15)
• Enable mermaid support by default vscode#271372 Matt Bierner (@mjbvz)
• Improve terminal inside chat view vscode#257468 Megan Rogge (@meganrogge)
• Unify changes in the 'working set' area across agent session types vscode#278654 Connor Peet (@connor4312) Jonathan Carter (@lostintangent)
• Support tool approval in a hover vscode#280617 Connor Peet (@connor4312)
• 🏃 Polish Agent Sessions UI query Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero) Jonathan Carter (@lostintangent)
• 🏃 Chat: Support contributable chat context resources vscode#271104 Alex Ross (@alexr00)
• 🏃 Improve chat response rendering query Justin Chen (@justschen) Joanna Oikawa (@jo-oikawa) Hawk Ticehurst (@hawkticehurst)
• 🏃 Chat Sessions Controller API Matt Bierner (@mjbvz) vscode#276243
• 🏃 Revisit terminal tool running background terminals UX vscode#274550 Daniel Imms (@Tyriar)

MCP

• Support MCP registry url property vscode#278398 Sandeep Somavarapu (@sandy081)
• Explore supporting MCP apps vscode#260218 Connor Peet (@connor4312)

Inline Chat

• Make inline chat more discoverable vscode#287105 Johannes Rieken (@jrieken)

NES / Completions

• Improve the speed for import NES suggestions vscode#277811 Benjamin Christopher Simmonds (@benibenj) Dirk Bäumer (@dbaeumer)
• Improve rendering of inline completions in small edits scenarios (single characters, punctuation) vscode#284517 Benjamin Christopher Simmonds (@benibenj)
• Prefer NES/completions over word suggestions vscode#284076 Benjamin Christopher Simmonds (@benibenj)
• Add support for diagnostics to the inline completion prompt vscode#277829 Dirk Bäumer (@dbaeumer)
• Suggest semantic renames when editing an identifier vscode#289124Dirk Bäumer (@dbaeumer)
• Add support for patch-based model response format vscode#287115 Ulugbek Abdullaev (@ulugbekna) Vikram (@vkrd)
• Adopt ICompletionsFetchService for completions vscode#277830 Ulugbek Abdullaev (@ulugbekna)
• 💪 Allow running simulation tests that include the completions model vscode#280344 Ulugbek Abdullaev (@ulugbekna) Benjamin Christopher Simmonds (@benibenj)

Agents

• Suggest to install GHPRI from Cloud agent sessions vscode#286168 Alex Ross (@alexr00)
• Support model-specific tools and tool descriptions vscode#277472 Connor Peet (@connor4312) Bhavya U (@bhavyaus)
• Support model / 3rd party agents in Cloud Agents vscode#286170 joshspicer
• Polish background agent session UX vscode#287043 Ladislau Szomoru (@lszomoru) Peng Lyu (@rebornix) team
• Sandboxing terminal while running commands through agent vscode#277286 Dileep Yavanmandha (@dileepyavan)
• 🏃 Support for Claude Agent vscode#266962 TylerLeonhardt
• 🏃 Support repo picker for cloud agents and polish empty workspace experience vscode#286020 Osvaldo Ortega (@osortega) Peng Lyu (@rebornix)
• 🏃 CLI integration improvements (custom-agent/model/tools) vscode#286028 Don Jayamanne (@DonJayamanne)

Prompt/Instruction Files and Custom Agents

• Allow parallel subagent execution vscode#274630 roblourens
• Improve custom agents vscode#286237 Martin Aeschlimann (@aeschli) Paul (@pwang347) Harald Kirschner (@digitarald)
• Improve skill lookup vscode#286238 Martin Aeschlimann (@aeschli) Paul (@pwang347)
• Provide skill lookup debugging vscode#286239 Martin Aeschlimann (@aeschli) Paul (@pwang347)
• Support GitHub's organization custom instructions vscode#276636 Paul (@pwang347) Martin Aeschlimann (@aeschli)
• 💪 Improve open editor handoff for Plan agent vscode#277432 Martin Aeschlimann (@aeschli) Paul (@pwang347)

Code Review

• 💪 Notify user when CCR no-ops vscode#277286 Ben Villalobos (@benvillalobos)
• 💪 Add Chat: Code Review command vscode#276977 Ben Villalobos (@benvillalobos)

Engineering

• Consume codicons from npm vscode#283823 Alex Ross (@alexr00)
• Explore distributing .dmg for macOS arm64 vscode#265849 Robo (@deepak1556)

Documentation

• Test-driven development user guide vscode-docs#8951 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh) Harald Kirschner (@digitarald)
• Refactor Enterprise article into separate articles vscode-docs#9132 Nick Trogh (@ntrogh) joshspicer
• 💪 Working with large codebases user guide vscode-docs#8932 Harald Kirschner (@digitarald) Nick Trogh (@ntrogh)

Deferred

• Register a single inline completions provider to vscode's API vscode#287116 Ulugbek Abdullaev (@ulugbekna)
• Archive handling for background/cloud sessions vscode#286171 joshspicer
• Explore layouts for Chat session + Multi File Diff vscode#260226 joshspicer
• Update Profiles UI to include AI features vscode#270130 Elijah King (@eli-w-king)
• Engineering: ESM restore support for ASAR vscode#228064 Robo (@deepak1556)
• Explore task-oriented workflow for chat/agent sessions vscode-pr#8076 Matt Bierner (@mjbvz)
• Exploration: Support runtime experimentation vscode#286162 Robo (@deepak1556)
• Refine chat motion rendering vscode#287175 Hawk Ticehurst (@hawkticehurst) justchen roblourens