{"meta":{"title":"Using Copilot cloud agent in your IDE","intro":"Start and track Copilot cloud agent sessions from Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, and Visual Studio.","product":"GitHub Copilot","breadcrumbs":[{"href":"/en/copilot","title":"GitHub Copilot"},{"href":"/en/copilot/how-tos","title":"How-tos"},{"href":"/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents","title":"Use Copilot agents"},{"href":"/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agent","title":"Cloud agent"},{"href":"/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agent/use-cloud-agent-in-your-ide","title":"Use cloud agent in your IDE"}],"documentType":"article"},"body":"# Using Copilot cloud agent in your IDE\n\nStart and track Copilot cloud agent sessions from Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, and Visual Studio.\n\n
\n\n## Starting a session\n\n1. Install the [GitHub Pull Requests extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github) for Visual Studio Code.\n\n2. Open GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code.\n\n3. Type a prompt explaining what you want Copilot to do.\n\n For example, `Put backticks around file names and variables in output`\n\n > \\[!TIP]\n > To help Copilot, you can select the relevant line(s) of code before submitting your prompt.\n\n4. Submit your prompt by clicking the **Delegate this task to the GitHub Copilot cloud agent** button, next to the **Send** button\n\n5. If you have local changes, a dialog will be displayed asking if you want to push those changes so Copilot can start from your current state. Click **Include changes** to push your changes, or **Ignore changes** to ask Copilot to start its work from your repository's default branch.\n\n Copilot will start a new session and respond with a link to the pull request it creates. It will work on the task and push changes to the pull request, and then add you as a reviewer when it has finished, triggering a notification.\n\n## Tracking your sessions\n\nYou can see a list of your running and past agent sessions for a specific repository in Visual Studio Code with the [GitHub Pull Requests extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github).\n\nOnce you've installed the extension, you can see Copilot's sessions by clicking the **GitHub** button in the sidebar.\n\nFor each session listed, you can see its status at a glance, or click on it to navigate to the pull request within Visual Studio Code.\n\nTo view the session logs, click on the pull request in the list, then click **View Session**.\n\nTo directly open agent sessions in VS Code, click the **Open in VS Code** option on the agents tab.\n\n> \\[!NOTE]\n> Opening a session in VS Code is currently only available in VS Code Insiders.\n\n
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\n\n> \\[!NOTE]\n> Copilot cloud agent in JetBrains IDEs is in public preview, and subject to change.\n\n## Starting a session\n\n1. Enable Copilot cloud agent in your JetBrains IDE.\n 1. Open **Settings**.\n 2. In the sidebar, click **Tools**, then **Copilot**, then **Chat**.\n 3. Select **Enable Cloud Agent**.\n\n2. If you use Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise, ask your administrator to enable the Editor preview features policy.\n\n3. Open Copilot Chat in your JetBrains IDE.\n\n4. Type a prompt explaining what you want Copilot to do.\n\n For example, `Put backticks around file names and variables in output`\n\n5. Click the **Delegate to Cloud Agent** button next to the **Send** button.\n\n Copilot will start a new session and respond with a link to the pull request it creates. It will work on the task and push changes to the pull request, and then add you as a reviewer when it has finished, triggering a notification from GitHub and in the IDE.\n\n## Tracking your sessions\n\nYou can see a list of your running and past agent sessions for a project in JetBrains IDEs with the Copilot Chat extension. See [Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in your environment](/en/copilot/how-tos/set-up/install-copilot-extension?tool=jetbrains).\n\nCloud agent sessions appear in the unified sessions view in the Copilot Chat panel alongside local and Copilot CLI sessions.\n\nYou can open the unified sessions view by clicking the **GitHub Cloud Agent Jobs** button in the sidebar or by clicking the **Open Job List** button after delegating a task to Copilot from Copilot Chat.\n\nYou can filter sessions by agent type or status to find the session you want.\n\nFor each session listed, you can see its status at a glance. Click **Open in Browser** to open the pull request in your browser, or right-click on a running job then click **Cancel Job** to cancel.\n\nCopilot will also notify you when an agent job has started and finished.\n\n
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\n\n> \\[!NOTE]\n> Copilot cloud agent in Eclipse is in public preview, and subject to change.\n\n## Starting a session\n\n1. Open GitHub Copilot Chat in Eclipse.\n\n2. Type a prompt explaining what you want Copilot to do.\n\n For example, `Put backticks around file names and variables in output`\n\n3. Click **** next to the **Send** button.\n\n4. In the dialog box that opens, select the repository you want Copilot to work in, then click **Continue**.\n\n Copilot will start a new session and respond with a link to the pull request it creates. It will work on the task and push changes to the pull request, and then add you as a reviewer when it has finished, triggering a notification from GitHub and in the IDE.\n\n## Tracking your sessions\n\nYou can see a list of your running and past agent sessions for a project in Eclipse with the GitHub Copilot Chat extension. See [Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in your environment](/en/copilot/how-tos/set-up/install-copilot-extension?tool=eclipse).\n\nYou can see all of Copilot's sessions by clicking **** at the top right of the chat window, or by clicking the **Open Job List** button after delegating a task to Copilot from GitHub Copilot Chat.\n\nFor each session listed, you can see its status at a glance. Click **Open in Browser** to open the pull request in your browser, or right-click on a running job then click **Cancel Job** to cancel.\n\nCopilot will also notify you when an agent job has started and finished.\n\n
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\n\n> \\[!NOTE] To use Copilot cloud agent in Visual Studio, you'll need to be running at least [December Update 18.1.0](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2026/release-notes#github-copilot-1) of Visual Studio 2026.\n\n## Starting a session\n\n1. Enable Copilot cloud agent support in Visual Studio.\n 1. Open the **Tools** menu, then click **Options**.\n 2. In the sidebar, select **GitHub**.\n 3. Check the **Enable Copilot Cloud agent (preview)** box.\n 4. Restart Visual Studio.\n\n2. Open GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio.\n\n3. Enter a prompt, giving details of what you want Copilot to change.\n\n For example, `Put backticks around file names and variables in log output.`\n\n4. Submit your prompt by clicking the **Delegate this task to the GitHub Copilot cloud agent** button, next to the **Send** button.\n\n Copilot asks you to confirm that you want to use the cloud agent to create a pull request.\n\n5. Click **Confirm**.\n\n Copilot will start a new session and respond with a link to the pull request it creates. It will work on the task and push changes to the pull request, and then add you as a reviewer when it has finished, triggering a notification.\n\n
\n\n## Further reading\n\n* [Managing agent sessions](/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/use-copilot-agents/manage-and-track-agents)\n* [Best practices for using GitHub Copilot to work on tasks](/en/copilot/tutorials/cloud-agent/get-the-best-results)\n* [Troubleshooting GitHub Copilot cloud agent](/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/cloud-agent/troubleshoot-cloud-agent)"}