Microsoft updates VS Code to 1.118 and adds remote control for Copilot CLI

The latest weekly update for Visual Studio Code introduces remote session monitoring via mobile and adds strict enterprise AI gating policies.

Microsoft has released Visual Studio Code 1.118. For the last month or so, the company has decided to shift to a weekly release schedule to get new features out to users as soon as they are ready. This week’s update brings a remote control feature, greater enterprise control, improved token efficiency, and more.

In older versions of VS Code, you had to be at the machine where you started a Copilot CLI session, but now, you can monitor and steer Copilot CLI sessions from GitHub.com or the GitHub mobile app. To use this feature, you need to enable it in the settings (check Microsoft’s changeloglinked below for the flag), then enter /remote in the Copilot CLI to start.

Another new feature in this update lets enterprises gate chat and related AI feature activation on approved GitHub organization membership using a device policy. This policy lets organizations apply account-based rules across chat entry points. It prevents access to chat features until the user is signed into a GitHub account with membership in an approved organization and the account-based policy has been resolved.

Finally, running AI bots for coding are not cheap after you’ve run out of your free allowance. To help users get the most bang for their buck, Microsoft has been working on several methods to improve token efficiency, without lowering the quality of the agent, these include: prompt caching efficiency improvements, strategic cache breakpoint placement, a cache-stable system prompt and tool list, cache-friendly background compaction, and a last-two-messages breakpoint strategy.

For a full round-up of all the features, check out Microsoft’s changelog for this release. If you have VS Code already then the update should arrive soon. If not, you can download it here.

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Posted Thursday 30 April 2026 at 7:33 am AEST (my time).

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