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New AI features are being added to VS
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Code every single day just about. And I
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want to show you five. Yes, five. Okay,
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actually six if you stick around for a
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bonus one at the end. New features that
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I think you're absolutely going to love
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that change the way to use agent mode
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and code completions every single day
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inside of VS Code. So, let's get into
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it.
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[Music]
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All right, let's talk about MCP servers.
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First and foremost, it's easier to see
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what you have installed either inside
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your project or as a user inside of VS
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Code and also install them. If you go
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over to extensions, you can see, of
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course, your installed and recommended
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extensions. You'll also see a new MCP
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server section here. Now, I don't have
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any installed at a user level or inside
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of my project. So I can click on this
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MCP servers. This will bring me to the
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VS Code page where I can browse
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different MCP servers available. Now
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there's of course tons available out
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there but it's kind of a curated list of
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things like GitHub, Docs, Marketdown,
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Hugging Face, Notion, Zappier, Memory,
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Firecrawl, Clarity, Stripe, Azure
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DevOps, Azure. Let's go ahead and
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install GitHub. So I want to have at my
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root all the time. So I'm going to say
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install GitHub. It's going to open up VS
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Code and give me this nice page to
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explore the MCP server. So, I can
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actually browse all of it here,
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manifest, go to the repo, everything
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like that. It's kind of like an
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extension, right? And it even shows me
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how to show set it up here. But I can
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just click install and boom, it's here,
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right? It's awesome. I can go ahead and
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at any time go into settings. I can say
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start server, show output,
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configuration, model access, and more.
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So, I'm going to say start server, and
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then it'll just log me in to GitHub.
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Just like that. And now when I go to my
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tools, I can see all of them built in
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and my GitHub MCP server. So I have
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everything authenticated just like that.
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Now this isn't creating a new MCP.JSON
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file in my VS Code folder. I can go up
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here and say MCP. And when I do that,
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I'll see list server, browse resources,
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reset cache tools, trust, show installed
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servers, list servers. Now I'm going to
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see the open workspace folder or open
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user configuration. the workspace, the
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one that I just talked about, the
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mcbp.json, but the open user
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configuration is one that's sort of in
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the application route for anytime I use
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VS Code anywhere, and that's where it's
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configured automatically. So, I can see
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it right there. Of course, if I don't
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want it there, I can just copy and paste
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this directly into a new MCP.json file.
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Anyways, MCB servers easier to install
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than ever.
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When I'm using agent mode, I'm often
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adding new features, functionality,
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fixing bugs, and tuning a lot more. And
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I often wanted to build a solution or
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projects and run tests. So when I do
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this normally, let's see what happens.
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So if I come in and say, how do I build
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this solution?
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Uh what are the commands, right? So I'm
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just going to ask it what it is. And
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it's going to tell me here probably to
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build it. Do a net restore, a donet
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build, a donet run. So I could say,
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okay, let's build it. So now what it's
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going to say is, okay, cool. and build.
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Let's run this command, which is
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something that would do all the time,
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but it's going to ask me to continue.
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You don't really need to ask me to build
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a project if you're implementing stuff.
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Just go ahead and build it. So now, if
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you go into settings
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and if you go ahead and go down to
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extensions and go down to GitHub copilot
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under experimental in this case, it may
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be in preview or automatically instable
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by the time you watch this, but there is
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a new allow list and a deny list. So you
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can specify what commands you want it to
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automatically run without any prompting.
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So if I go in and say add.net
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build and hit okay here. Now we can go
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back and I could say let's build it. And
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now it will automatically run that
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build. This is so nice when working with
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agent mode to specify what commands you
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want it to automatically run. It's super
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nice to go in, have your allow list and
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your deny list, anything that you want.
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So, PowerShell, bash, anything like
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that, specify them here. So, I have net
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build, net run, net test, have
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everything automatically set up.
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Okay, one of my other favorite features
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is a new setting. Just go into your
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settings and say max requests. All
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right, this is key. This defaults to 20.
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So, when you're working in agent mode,
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you often have it have longunning
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operations. The default for max request
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before it asks you to continue is 20.
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Set it higher. I set it to 100. Set it
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to 10,000. Just whatever you want. It'll
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just keep going and keep grinding until
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it finishes. And it'll never ask you for
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continue ever again. Combine that with
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the allow deny list and that is a
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gamecher.
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All right. All right, I showed this
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other one in another video, but I'm
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going to tell you again, go into your
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settings of the agent mode. Hit generate
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instructions. This will automatically go
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through and analyze your entire
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codebase. It will create and or update
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your co-pilot instructions, giving it a
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full overview of everything in your
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project, how to run it, how to add
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features, and a whole lot more. It will
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analyze your best practices, your coding
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conventions and a lot more. So every
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time you make a call with agent mode, it
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will automatically send these and then
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you can specify them even more details
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if you want to. As you make changes to
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your project, go back in, go inside of
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here, play around, hit generate
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instructions again. You can run it with
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different models, anything that you
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want. It's basically running a big
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prompt and it is a gamecher when working
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with copilot instructions inside of VS
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Code or Visual Studio or anywhere that
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you're using Copilot.
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Okay, I love code completions. When I'm
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typing code, which I still do, I say
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group dot and it automatically fills in
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this ghost text, this code completion
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recommendation that I can just tap tap
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tap tap tap and go go go. Sometimes
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you're in a flow, you might be demoing,
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you want to do something. You can now
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click this little co-pilot icon down
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here and you can configure if you want
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code completions on for all files, the
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type of file you're in, if you want
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nextedit suggestions, or what I like is
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this little snooze button. You can add
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five minutes at a time. So you can
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automatically snooze the code
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completion. So now if I come back over
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and I say group dot, I don't get any
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code completions coming in. So I can
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just write. I still get my IntelliSense.
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I still get everything that I want, but
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now I'm just back in the flow. I can
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come back in. I see there's a little Z
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right there. If I tap on it again, I can
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go ahead and hit cancel. Come back in.
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And now I'll start to get my code
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completions again coming in just like
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that, which is super awesome.
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Okay, the last thing I want to talk
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about is the awesome co-pilot repo on
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the GitHub or has a bunch of custom
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instructions and prompts and custom chat
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modes which basically let you identify
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behaviors for tools when working with
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agent mode. So things for example like
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planning mode or DBA or PRD type chat
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creation inside of here refining
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requirements or issue chat and you can
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basically scope down what tools are
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available and give it additional
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instructions when working in that mode.
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My favorite is this one from Burke
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Holland 4.1 beast mode which for all
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intents and purposes gives when working
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with GBT41 additional behaviors that do
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much more in-depth planning and
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execution. So it goes through and he
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worked really close looking at all the
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OpenAI documentation and identified this
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workflow and understanding what it needs
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to do. So let's go ahead and put this
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chat mode in. I'm going to go to RAW.
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I'm going to copy this. I'm going to go
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over into my build and I'm going to say
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settings modes and then I can add a new
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chat mode file in my GitHub chat modes
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here. And then I'm going to say beast
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mode. You can even add them like
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systemwide and paste that in. Okay. So
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now I just have a single product
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endpoint here. Let me say let's add a
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new user endpoint
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and create a new web UI in the front end
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for managing them. Now here I could use
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just normal agent mode, but I'm going to
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go into the agent mode custom beast
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mode. Now I can still select the
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different models, but I'm going to go
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ahead and select just 41. it's been
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optimized for and hit go. Now, what I
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like about this is that 41 is going to
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now identify all the steps that it
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needs. It's identified it eight
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different steps that it needs to execute
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like data entities, p data context, the
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endpoints, the program files, and a lot
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more. And it's going to go and update
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along the way of everything that it is
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doing. So, this is really, really neat
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as it adds files. And this has been a
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complete gamecher for me when I'm
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working with agent mode and 41 because
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it is super duper quick. Those are just
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some of my new favorite features when
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working with agent mode and code
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completions inside of VS Code. But there
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are so many to explore. What are your
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favorite features? Let me know in the
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comments below. If you enjoyed this
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video and you've tried out some of the
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features, give it a thumbs up, share it
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with a friend, and don't forget to
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subscribe. Jam that notification bell so
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you get notified every time I put out
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new videos right here on YouTube. So
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until next time, I'm James. Thanks for
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watching.
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[Music]
