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Support Foundry Canvas in VS Code

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#861 3 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

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@qinezh is already working on this.

Since Oct 13, 2026.

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Description

needs attention

The microsoft-foundry plugin hard-codes a check for

process.env.AI_AGENT === "github_copilot_app_agent"

This is causing it only to work in the GitHub Copilot App.

As we add Canvas support to VS Code, could you please also allow for VS Code as well?

process.env.AI_AGENT === "github_copilot_app_agent" || AI_AGENT === "github_copilot_vscode_agent"

Verbose AI-generated details below:

Problem

The microsoft-foundry plugin is discovered and synchronized into VS Code Agent Host sessions, but it contributes no canvases because its bundled extension only enables its tools, companion instructions, and canvases when:

process.env.AI_AGENT === "github_copilot_app_agent"

VS Code intentionally identifies its Copilot agent processes as:

github_copilot_vscode_agent

See AiAgentEnvValue in microsoft/vscode.

The host check is visible in microsoft-foundry/com.github.copilot/extensions/microsoft-foundry/extension.mjs: when the check is false, the extension joins the session with an empty canvases array.

Reproduction

  1. Install the microsoft-foundry plugin in VS Code.
  2. Enable chat.canvases.enabled.
  3. Create a new local Copilot Agent Host session.
  4. Confirm the plugin is enabled and synchronized into the session.
  5. List available canvases.

The Foundry agent-builder canvas is absent because VS Code supplies AI_AGENT=github_copilot_vscode_agent.

Requested behavior

Please support github_copilot_vscode_agent in addition to github_copilot_app_agent, so the Foundry canvases can be registered in VS Code when the host provides the required Canvas capabilities.

For example, the host admission check could accept both known identifiers, or preferably feature-detect the specific Canvas/RPC capabilities the extension needs. The latter would allow App-specific integrations such as terminal and browser canvases to degrade explicitly if a host does not provide them.

Expected result

With canvases enabled, a new VS Code Copilot Agent Host session discovers the agent-builder canvas and can open it through the normal Canvas extension APIs without changing existing GitHub Copilot App behavior.

🤖 Written by GitHub Copilot on behalf of @jruales.

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