--- title: Visual Studio July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered... description: Visual Studio's July 2026 update introduces a new Agent (Preview) in Copilot Chat, built on the GitHub Copilot SDK for a more consistent experience across... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Visual Studio July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered by the GitHub Copilot SDK | daily.dev og:description: Visual Studio's July 2026 update introduces a new Agent (Preview) in Copilot Chat, built on the GitHub Copilot SDK for a more consistent experience across... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OwF8vXNQo.png og:image:alt: Visual Studio July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered by the GitHub Copilot SDK og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: 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 July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered by the GitHub Copilot SDK **[Visual Studio Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/vs)** · 5 min read · 8 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Visual Studio's July 2026 update introduces a new Agent (Preview) in Copilot Chat, built on the GitHub Copilot SDK for a more consistent experience across Copilot surfaces including CLI, VS Code, and Visual Studio. Built-in .NET and Azure skills authored by Microsoft teams are now available in the tool picker. Organization owners can set custom instructions that apply automatically across all team members. Branches can now be attached as context in Copilot Chat. C++ builds gain opt-in auto-discovery of pinned MSVC toolset versions across multiple Visual Studio installations via the EnableVCToolsVersionDiscovery property. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I make Visual Studio C++ builds find a pinned MSVC toolset version installed in a different Visual Studio installation? Set EnableVCToolsVersionDiscovery to true in your project or Directory.Build.props alongside your VCToolsVersion pin, for example VCToolsVersion 14.43.34604. Previously Visual Studio stopped searching once any matching platform toolset was found locally, even if the exact pinned version lived elsewhere; enabling this setting makes it keep searching across all installations until it finds the exact pinned version. _daily.dev surfaces build-tooling changes like this for teams keeping C++ builds reproducible._ ### What is the new Agent option in Visual Studio's GitHub Copilot Chat? It is a new Agent (Preview) mode in Copilot Chat's agent picker, built on the same GitHub Copilot SDK that powers the GitHub Copilot CLI. It aims to complete tasks correctly with less back-and-forth, gives shorter and easier-to-scan responses, and lets work started in the CLI, GitHub app, or VS Code transition into Visual Studio for review or refinement. _Developers evaluating agentic coding workflows can track Copilot Agent updates like this on daily.dev._ ### How do GitHub organization-level custom instructions work with Copilot in Visual Studio? GitHub organization owners can add custom instructions that automatically tailor Copilot's responses for everyone working in a repository belonging to that organization, so preferences don't need to be set per developer. They appear in the reference list during Copilot interactions and can be disabled individually under Tools > Options > GitHub > Copilot > Copilot Chat if they conflict with personal instructions. _Teams standardizing Copilot behavior can follow rollouts like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio — April update](https://daily.dev/posts/github-copilot-in-visual-studio-april-update-smq2h4vdp) · GitHub Changelog · 33 upvotes · 2 comments - [Visual Studio April Update – Cloud Agent Integration](https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-april-update-cloud-agent-integration-xpmhiroao) · Visual Studio Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Build Your Own Custom Agents](https://daily.dev/posts/build-your-own-custom-agents-lscjdejoj) · Visual Studio Blog · 12 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#.net](https://daily.dev/tags/.net), [#c++](https://daily.dev/tags/c++), [#visual-studio](https://daily.dev/tags/visual-studio) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Visual Studio July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered by the GitHub Copilot SDK","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T16:02:45.969Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:39:02.049Z","description":"Visual Studio's July 2026 update introduces a new Agent (Preview) in Copilot Chat, built on the GitHub Copilot SDK for a more consistent experience across...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/703e92853adef24cad26e87ee0d35b95?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/703e92853adef24cad26e87ee0d35b95?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Visual Studio Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Visual Studio Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/03971923d4044f74ac177dc752e1e752","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/vs"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"github,.net,c++,visual-studio","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Visual Studio Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/vs"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Visual Studio July Update — Meet the New Agent, Powered by the GitHub Copilot SDK"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-july-update-meet-the-new-agent-powered-by-the-github-copilot-sdk-owf8vxnqo#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I make Visual Studio C++ builds find a pinned MSVC toolset version installed in a different Visual Studio installation?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Set EnableVCToolsVersionDiscovery to true in your project or Directory.Build.props alongside your VCToolsVersion pin, for example VCToolsVersion 14.43.34604. 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