Microsoft adds experimental AI agent support in VS Code remote dev containers

To use it, developers must have Docker running on the host machine, a .devcontainer/devcontainer.json or .devcontainer.json file, and one of the supported remote hosts. The capability cannot be combined with the New Worktree feature and is being rolled out gradually, so it may not appear for every VS Code 1.139 install. Microsoft’s internal test of roughly 645 sessions showed a 12× speedup for the initial session list and about a four‑fold improvement for refresh operations, though smaller session counts will see less dramatic gains.

The change lets AI agents work with the same dependencies and tools defined in the container, reducing the friction of reproducing remote environments locally. Microsoft also reminds users to secure Dev Tunnels with authentication, as anonymous access could let agents execute commands with the developer’s credentials.