VS Code 1.143: the editor that made AI the default
On October 22, 2026, Microsoft shipped VS Code 1.143 with the Copilot harness set as the default for every new editing session. On the same day, Baptiste Augrain pushed version 1.143.17183 of VSCodium — the open-source, telemetry-free build of the same editor — and removed the Copilot integration entirely. After eleven years of shared source code, the two projects had chosen opposite answers to the same question.
VS Code launched in April 2015 as a lightweight editor with AI arriving six years later as an extension you installed on top of it. Copilot moved in the way tenants move in: existing infrastructure, added layer, separate billing. For five years the relationship stayed additive. Version 1.143 inverted it. The Copilot harness — built on a shared Copilot SDK that aligns behavior across Microsoft’s AI products — became the foundation every new session started from. The extension had become the floor.
Three other features in the release point in the same direction. Model Comparison, labeled “Preview,” lets a developer run the same coding task with multiple AI models simultaneously, then read a scorecard of each model’s time and token usage; a Judge model can evaluate the attempts and recommend an approach. Worktree cleanup lets VS Code reclaim disk space from inactive agent sessions, treating those sessions as objects the editor is responsible for managing. And MAI Code 1.1 Flash introduced local AI processing: on machines carrying at least 96 GB of GPU memory, VS Code can now run a coding model entirely on-device, generating responses that consume no cloud credits and leave no trace on Microsoft’s servers.
VSCodium’s response was equally legible. Augrain preserved Claude and Codex access through the multi-model agent host — the objection was not to AI but to the specific dependency on Microsoft’s Copilot service and its sign-in requirement. The project has stripped telemetry from every VS Code release since 2019; stripping the default AI service was the same policy meeting a larger target. A story covering the build captured the situation in four words: “VSCodium is doing the opposite.”
The shift worth noting is not the feature but the grammar of installation. In 2021, Copilot required a paid subscription and a deliberate choice; a developer had to seek it out. By October 2026, Copilot was what appeared when a developer opened a new VS Code session without touching a single setting. The same transition had happened to spell-check in word processors, autocomplete in search boxes, turn-by-turn navigation in maps: AI assistance moving from a layer you add to a state you start in, until its absence is the configuration that requires a decision.
VS Code began as the editor you could run AI inside. By October 2026, it was becoming the AI that ran an editor.
Sources
- Visual Studio Code 1.143 — VS Code release notes — Copilot harness as default, MAI Code 1.1 Flash on-device requirements (96 GB VRAM), Model Comparison preview, Worktree cleanup, release date October 22, 2026.
- VSCodium 1.143.17183 Drops Copilot as VS Code Leans Into AI — Linux Compatible — Augrain’s Copilot removal, multi-model alternatives retained, VSCodium’s ongoing anti-telemetry policy.