Visual Studio Code

code.visualstudio.com · IDE · Desktop

Visual Studio Code is an IDE that runs as a desktop app: Free source-code editor with rich extension ecosystem. Its repository microsoft/vscode carries 193,660 stars and 314 contributors, and is licensed MIT. The latest stable release is 1.141.0, published 7 Oct 2026. Homebrew recorded 21,088 installs of visual-studio-code in 30 days. Every extension you install holds the editor's own permissions: the extension host can read and write your files, reach the network and start processes, and there is no per-extension permission list.

Stars: 193,660; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Last commit: 8 Oct 2026; 0 days old when we read it; Verified 8 Oct 2026
License: MIT; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Latest stable release: 1.141.0; published 7 Oct 2026; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Contributors: 314; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Homebrew installs: 21,088 in 30 days; visual-studio-code; Verified 8 Oct 2026
Repository: microsoft/vscode; TypeScript; Verified 8 Oct 2026

Visit Visual Studio Code microsoft/vscode on GitHub Visual Studio Code alternatives

What Visual Studio Code is

Visual Studio Code is the host, not the agent: one Session Target control switches a session between five harnesses — Local, GitHub Copilot, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI Codex and Cloud — so the editor stays fixed while the agent behind it changes.

“Visual Studio Code supports multiple agent harnesses: Local, GitHub Copilot, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI Codex, and Cloud. An agent harness coordinates an agent session, including tool calls, context, and code changes. Use the Session Target control to choose a harness and where it runs.”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents

What Visual Studio Code costs

Visual Studio Code itself is free for private and commercial work, and the product licence allows any number of copies inside a company network.

“You may use any number of copies of the software to develop and test your applications, including deployment within your internal corporate network.”

code.visualstudio.com/License

The editor is free but the agents are not: reaching the Claude Code and Codex harnesses through a Copilot subscription starts at Copilot Pro, $10 per user a month.

“Pro · For everyday coding with agents in GitHub Copilot. · $10 USD per user / month · Get started · Everything in Free and: · Access to Cloud agent and code review · Unlimited code completion and next edit suggestions · Access to 3rd party agents (Claude Code and Codex)”

github.com/features/copilot

There is a $0 Copilot tier under it, capped at 2,000 completions a month and a smaller model list.

“Free · For getting started with GitHub Copilot. · $0 USD · Get started Open in VS Code · What's included: · 2,000 completions per month · Access to Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more”

github.com/features/copilot

Use Visual Studio Code when

Run Anthropic's agent without installing a second product: the Claude harness is enabled by default and bills either through a GitHub Copilot subscription or through your own Anthropic key.

“Claude supports two authentication and billing options: · GitHub Copilot subscription: sign in to GitHub to use Copilot-routed models. Usage is billed through your Copilot subscription. · Anthropic credentials: use an Anthropic API key or Claude Code OAuth token. Usage is billed by Anthropic.”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents

Add Google Antigravity to the editor you already have instead of switching to its IDE: the extension installs its own local `agy` backend service on first launch.

“Click the Antigravity icon in the Activity Bar to sign in and begin setup. The extension automatically installs the local agy backend service on first launch.”

antigravity.google/docs/ide

Keep the editor and switch the AI off: the `chat.disableAIFeatures` setting hides chat and inline suggestions and disables the Copilot extensions, per workspace or per user.

“This disables and hides features like chat or inline suggestions in VS Code and disables the Copilot extensions. You can configure the setting at the workspace or user level.”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting

Not the right fit for

A team that needs the agent confined before its first run should pick Codex CLI: in VS Code a Git worktree separates the files and nothing else.

“Worktree isolation does not restrict commands, network access, or access outside the worktree.”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/agents

What Visual Studio Code is bad at

The app you download is not the MIT repository: Microsoft ships Visual Studio Code as a licensed distribution of the open-source Code - OSS tree, and says the product is built on open source rather than being open source.

“Microsoft Visual Studio Code is a Microsoft licensed distribution of 'Code - OSS' that includes Microsoft proprietary assets (such as icons) and features (Visual Studio Marketplace integration, small aspects of enabling Remote Development). While these additions make up a very small percentage of…”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting

The extension library is licensed to Microsoft's own products, so a fork of Code - OSS cannot legally carry Microsoft extensions from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

“No. While the source code for an extension from Microsoft may be open source, we do not license extensions from Microsoft or its affiliates that are published to and acquired from the Visual Studio Marketplace for use outside of the Visual Studio family of products: Microsoft Visual Studio, Visua…”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting

The local agent harness still runs unsandboxed for everybody: Microsoft took sandboxing to 50% of users, then set the default rollout back to 0% in the 1.135 release.

“We previously rolled out sandboxing to 50% of users to validate it on a larger scale and in real-world use cases. While we didn't identify a specific blocking issue, continuing the rollout would likely require more support and follow-up work at a time when we want to preserve focus on higher-prio…”

code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_135

Security and data handling

Every extension you install holds the editor's own permissions: the extension host can read and write your files, reach the network and start processes, and there is no per-extension permission list.

“The extension host is responsible for running extensions in VS Code. The extension host has the same permissions as VS Code itself. This means that any action that VS Code can perform, an extension can also perform through the extension host.”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/configure

The Marketplace checks the package rather than the permissions: every new extension and every update is held back until several antivirus engines clear it.

“Malware scanning : The Marketplace runs a malware scan on each extension package that's published to ensure its safety. The scan, which uses several antivirus engines, is run for each new extension and for each extension update. Until the scan is all clear, the extension won't be published in the…”

code.visualstudio.com/docs/configure

Technical details

Category: IDE · Desktop
Repository: microsoft/vscode
Default branch: main
Primary language: TypeScript
Repository created: 3 Sep 2015
Newest commit on the default branch: 8 Oct 2026
GitHub topics: editor, electron, microsoft, typescript, visual-studio-code
Registries checked: npm:visual-studio-code, homebrew:visual-studio-code,vscode, vscode_marketplace:GitHub.codespaces
Website check: https://code.visualstudio.com answered HTTP 200

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How we check this page

Machine facts. Stars, licence, the newest commit on the default branch, the latest stable release and download counts are read straight from the GitHub API and from npm, PyPI, Homebrew and the VS Code Marketplace. Each one shows the day it was last confirmed, not the day this page was built. A failed fetch keeps the old value and its old date rather than overwriting it.
Judgments. Every claim about what a tool suits, what it is bad at and what it costs is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. If there is no link, we did not write the claim.
What we do not publish. No score out of five and no star rating. Every other claim here traces to a source, and a number we could not justify would undermine the ones that can.
This tool. Every claim carries the URL it came from and a verbatim quote from that URL, read on 2026-08-27.