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Cloud agents in Visual Studio Code

Cloud agents run on remote infrastructure and integrate with GitHub repositories for team collaboration through pull requests. For example, the GitHub Copilot cloud agent runs on GitHub's infrastructure and can implement features, address code review feedback, and open pull requests autonomously.

This article covers the key features of cloud agents, and how to start and manage cloud agent sessions for coding tasks that can range anywhere from simple to complex.

What are cloud agents?

Unlike local and background agents that run on your local machine, cloud agents like Copilot cloud agent run on remote infrastructure. You can view and manage all your cloud agent sessions from the unified Chat view in VS Code. This view also lets you create new cloud agent sessions directly from VS Code or hand off local or background agent conversations to cloud agents.

VS Code supports different cloud agents, such as Copilot cloud agent and third-party agents like Claude and Codex.

Tip

If you prefer an agent-first surface for running cloud agent sessions alongside Copilot CLI and Claude sessions across multiple projects, use the Agents window. Sessions are shared between the main VS Code window and the Agents window.

Because cloud agents run remotely without user interaction, they are well-suited for tasks that have a well-defined scope and all necessary context. Their integration with pull requests makes them very effective for team collaboration.

Due to their remote execution environment, cloud agents can't directly access VS Code built-in tools and run-time context (like failed tests or text selections). They are limited to the MCP servers and language models that are configured in the cloud agent service.

To assign a task to a cloud agent, you can either create a new cloud session directly from the Chat view or hand off a local or background agent conversation from VS Code to a cloud agent.

GitHub Copilot cloud agent

The GitHub Copilot cloud agent is the primary cloud agent available in VS Code with your Copilot subscription.

Key capabilities include:

Large-scale refactoring across your GitHub repository
Complete feature implementation from high-level requirements
Automatic pull request generation with detailed descriptions
Code review integration and feedback addressing

Third-party cloud agents

VS Code supports third-party cloud agents like Claude coding agent and Codex coding agent as options for cloud agent sessions. You need to enable support for third-party agents in the cloud in your Copilot account settings before you can use them in VS Code.

You don't need to install the provider's VS Code extension to use their cloud agent in VS Code.

Learn more about third-party agents in VS Code and how to enable them.

Start a cloud agent session

You can start a cloud agent session either directly by sending a chat prompt to a cloud agent or by handing off an ongoing local or background conversation to a cloud agent. Handing off an ongoing conversation is especially useful for complex tasks that require initial clarification or planning before autonomous execution.

If you prefer to work in the browser, you can also start cloud agent sessions directly from GitHub.com using the GitHub Copilot cloud agent.

Create a new cloud agent session

To create a new cloud agent session:

In the Chat view, select New Chat from the session list dropdown and choose Cloud from the session type dropdown

Alternatively, you can run the Chat: New Cloud Agent command from the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)).
Choose the cloud agent provider from the dropdown and optionally select a custom agent and model.
Enter your prompt and let the cloud agent work on the task

For example, you might enter: