VS Code 1.134: chat grids, prompt timeline, Find in chat

Visual Studio Code 1.134 shipped in stable on August 19, 2026. The official notes frame the build around a practical problem: once an agent session gets long, you need related conversations visible at once, a way back to earlier prompts, and search that covers the transcript—not only what is on screen.

That is the useful news. 1.134 adds side-by-side chats (including subagent chats), a prompt timeline with change counts, and Find in chat (Ctrl+F) across the full conversation. The same notes describe Agent Host—a dedicated process, the Agent Host Protocol (AHP), and a Copilot agent powered by the Copilot SDK—as actively developing, and they link Agent Host documentation. Visual Studio Magazine’s same-day recap treats the host as a major, new piece. This release is a session-UX ship.

Side-by-side chats and subagents

You can arrange related chats in horizontal or vertical groups. Drag chats or subagent chats into a group to compare results or monitor work side by side. VS Code restores the chat-group layout and focus when you return to the session or reload the window.

Create a side chat to open a new conversation beside the current chat. Drag a subagent chat into a group to view it next to the current thread. You can also Alt+select a chat in the Chats picker to open it to the side.

If you work in the Agents window’s single-pane layout, this release makes that layout easier to keep still. Enable sessions.layout.singlePaneDetailPanel and reload the window. Session details and editors then sit in a shared tab bar next to chat. The layout follows workbench.editor.showTabs: multiple tabs remain visible, while the single and none values use a compact single-title header. Text file editors use the same header structure as the Changes editor, with file breadcrumbs in the header. The side pane keeps its size and visibility when you switch sessions, so the window does not snap around as you move between conversations.

The grid matches how agent work actually looks: a main thread, a subagent off to the side, and a need to see both without flipping tabs.

Prompt timeline with change counts

Long agent sessions make it hard to find earlier prompts and to tell which ones changed files. The Agents window now includes a timeline in the transcript gutter. Each dot represents one of your prompts, and the highlighted dot marks your current position. Hover over the timeline to view your prompts, then select one to jump to it.

For prompts that changed files, the list shows the number of lines added and removed and lets you open the changes directly for review. That pairing—jump to the turn, then open the diff—is what makes a long session inspectable instead of a scroll marathon.

Use sessions.chatTimeline.display to show the timeline beside the scrollbar (ruler) or hide it (off).

Find in chat

Finding a file name, an error string, or a decision from earlier in a conversation previously meant scrolling the transcript. Use Ctrl+F to search conversations in the Chat view, chat editors, and the Agents window.

Search includes the entire conversation, even content that is not currently rendered on screen. As you move between matches, VS Code scrolls each match into view and expands a collapsed work summary if it contains the match. You can also match case, match whole words, or use regular expressions.

That last detail matters. Collapsed work summaries are exactly where a decision or a path tends to hide. Search that expands them is closer to find-in-file than to find-in-the-visible-pane.

Visual Studio Magazine’s same-day recap of 1.134 walks the same list: chat groups, the prompt timeline, full-conversation search, and the option to open local HTML in the integrated browser.

HTML preview and a tab shortcut

If you often preview local HTML files instead of editing them, you can set the integrated browser as their default editor. Configure this with workbench.editorAssociations or from the editor header. The integrated browser stays associated with the HTML file; links and other navigation open in new tabs so that association is not lost.

You can also close every other editor from a tab without the context menu. Hold Alt to change the close action on each editor tab to Close Other Editors, then select the action on the tab you want to keep.

Agent Host, restated

The 1.134 notes include Agent Host under Agents. It lets you connect to the same agent session from multiple VS Code windows. It runs agent harnesses in a dedicated process based on AHP. The Copilot agent is powered by the Copilot SDK, which the notes say aligns the agent’s behavior and functionality with Copilot CLI, the standalone GitHub Copilot app, and other Copilot products. Microsoft says it is actively developing the host and points to existing Agent Host documentation. That is the continuity the notes claim. Visual Studio Magazine’s same-day recap treats the host as a major, new piece.

The August 19 ship date is real. The features that change daily work in this build are the ones that make a long session navigable: side-by-side chats, a prompt timeline with change counts, and Ctrl+F across the full transcript.

VS Code is rolling out gradually to all users. Use Check for Updates to get 1.134 immediately. To try new features as soon as they are available, the notes still point to the nightly Insiders build.

Next step: Open the official 1.134 notes, then in an Agents session create a side chat, set sessions.chatTimeline.display to ruler, and run Ctrl+F on a long transcript.