The October 2025 update to Visual Studio brings new model choices, a more project-aware Copilot, and planning in Copilot Chat.

Highlights

Here’s what’s new with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022 (v17.14):

  • New models: Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Claude Haiku 4.5 are now available, bringing cutting-edge capabilities for your agentic workflows right in Visual Studio.

  • Memories: Capture coding standards and best practices for your project with Copilot memories. Preferences detected in chat can be saved to .editorconfig, CONTRIBUTING.md, and README.md files, making Copilot more project-aware and consistent across sessions.

  • Planning: Handle complex, multi-step tasks with built-in planning capabilities. Copilot Chat creates Markdown plan files with task lists, files to edit, and context for its approach enabling greater transparency and reliability.

  • Instruction files: Add .instructions.md files in .github/instructions to define project standards and guidelines. Use glob patterns to target specific files or folders, helping Copilot apply rules consistently across your codebase.

  • Chat management: Stay organized with new /clear and /clearall commands. Use /clear to reset your current chat or /clearall to remove all previous threads.

Download Visual Studio to experience all the new Copilot features today. To learn more about what’s new, check out the Visual Studio blog and release notes.

What’s next for Copilot in Visual Studio

Stay up to date on the latest Copilot features by following the Visual Studio blog, where you’ll find roadmap updates and opportunities to share feedback.

For the latest news, release notes, videos, and community conversations, visit the Visual Studio Hub, your central resource for all things Visual Studio.