---
title: "Visual Studio August Update — Work Smarter Across Models and Branches"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-august-update-work-smarter-across-models-and-branches-9jyqnfkxo
source_url: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-august-update-work-smarter-across-models-and-branches
type: article
source: "Visual Studio Blog"
published: 2026-08-25T16:01:55.934Z
updated: 2026-08-25T16:02:55.566Z
tags: ["github", "git", "visual-studio"]
reading_time: 4
upvotes: 9
comments: 1
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Visual Studio August Update — Work Smarter Across Models and Branches

**[Visual Studio Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/vs)** · 4 min read · 9 upvotes · 1 comments

## Summary

Visual Studio's August update lets developers tune AI model thinking effort (Low/Medium/High) for Copilot tasks, share custom agents at the organization level, and view Copilot plan usage directly in the IDE. Git workflows gain worktree support for working on multiple branches simultaneously without stashing, plus first-class submodule management with a dedicated UI section, automatic discovery, and read-only-by-default protection.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-august-update-work-smarter-across-models-and-branches>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I work on multiple Git branches at the same time in Visual Studio without stashing changes?

Visual Studio 2026's August update adds Git worktree support, giving each branch its own working directory so current changes stay in place while switching tasks. Right-click a branch in the Git Repository window and select New Worktree From, choosing a new or existing branch or a commit from history, then open it in the current window or a new instance.

_Developers juggling parallel branches can follow git tooling updates like this on daily.dev._

### Does Visual Studio support Git submodules natively now?

Yes, Visual Studio 2026's August update introduces dedicated submodule support with a Submodules section in the Git Repository window, better visibility in Git Changes, and a repository picker showing parent-child hierarchy. Submodules are discovered automatically and read-only by default; enabling edits requires setting Automatically activate multiple repositories to include submodules under Tools > Options > Source Control > Git.

_Teams managing multi-repo projects can track Git tooling changes like this via daily.dev._

### Can I control how much reasoning effort GitHub Copilot uses in Visual Studio?

Yes, Visual Studio 2026's August update lets you set model thinking effort to Low, Medium, or High for supported models, balancing response depth, speed, and token usage. Low suits straightforward questions and code suggestions, Medium fits everyday development, and High is for tricky algorithms, architecture decisions, or hard-to-debug problems, adjustable from the Model picker or Language Models view.

_Developers tuning AI assistant behavior for different tasks can follow tooling updates like this on daily.dev._

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@trevorsuna** · 0 upvotes

> First-class worktrees can remove a lot of stash juggling, especially during reviews and urgent fixes. Read-only-by-default submodules are another sensible guardrail; the remaining challenge is making branch and dependency context obvious when several worktrees are open at once.

---

Tags: [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#git](https://daily.dev/tags/git), [#visual-studio](https://daily.dev/tags/visual-studio)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-august-update-work-smarter-across-models-and-branches-9jyqnfkxo)