Third-party agents in Visual Studio Code
Third-party agents in Visual Studio Code are AI agents developed by external providers that integrate into the VS Code agent experience. These agents use your existing Copilot subscription and provide alternative approaches to autonomous coding powered by different AI providers. VS Code supports third-party agents that can run either locally or in the background, depending on the provider.
You can manage third-party agent sessions from the unified Chat view in VS Code, just like local, background, and cloud agent sessions.
Claude Agent (Preview)
Claude agent sessions provide agentic coding capabilities powered by Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK directly in VS Code. The Claude agent operates autonomously on your workspace to plan, execute, and iterate on coding tasks with its own set of tools and capabilities.
Enable or disable support for Claude agent sessions with the
Start a Claude agent session
To start a new Claude agent session:
-
Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)) and select New Chat (
+). -
Select Claude from the agents dropdown
-
Enter your prompt and let the agent work on the task
The Claude agent autonomously determines which tools to use and makes changes to your workspace.
Claude agent slash commands
The Claude agent provides specialized slash commands for advanced workflows. Type / in the chat input box to see the available commands.
| Slash command | Description |
|---|---|
/agents |
Create and manage specialized Claude agents for specific tasks. Define custom agent behaviors through a wizard. Learn more about Claude sub-agents. |
/hooks |
Configure lifecycle hooks that execute at key points during Claude agent sessions, such as before or after tool execution. Learn more about Claude hooks. |
/memory |
Open and edit CLAUDE.md memory files that provide persistent context to Claude agent across sessions. |
/init |
Initialize a new CLAUDE.md memory file for your project. |
/pr-comments |
Get comments from a pull request. |
/review |
Review code changes in a pull request. |
/security-review |
Perform a security review of pending code changes on the current branch. |
Permission modes
Claude agent requests permission before performing certain operations. By default, file edits within your workspace are auto-approved, while other operations like running terminal commands might require confirmation.
You can choose how the agent applies changes to your workspace:
- Edit automatically: Claude agent makes changes to your workspace autonomously as it works on the task.
- Request approval: Claude agent asks for your review before making changes to your workspace.
- Plan: Claude agent outlines its intended approach before starting work on the task.
The
OpenAI Codex
The OpenAI Codex agent uses OpenAI's Codex to perform coding tasks autonomously. Codex runs can run interactively in VS Code or unattended in the background.
Prerequisites
- A Copilot Pro+ subscription for authentication
- The OpenAI Codex extension installed from the Visual Studio Marketplace
OpenAI Codex in VS Code enables you to use your Copilot Pro+ subscription to authenticate and access Codex without additional setup. Get more information about GitHub Copilot billing and premium requests in the GitHub documentation.
Start a Codex session
To start a new OpenAI Codex agent session:
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Open the Chat view (⌃⌘I (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Alt+I)) and select New Chat (
+). -
Select Codex from the agents dropdown
-
A chat editor opens for the Codex agent
-
Enter your prompt and let the agent work on the task
Related resources
- Agents overview: Understand different agent types and how to hand off tasks between agents