Visual Studio Code 1.134 arrived on August 19, 2026, and this release is all about managing the complexity that comes with long, multi-turn agent sessions. As VS Code’s agent capabilities have matured — multiple chats, subagents, multi-window sessions — the UI hasn’t always kept up with helping you navigate all that activity. Version 1.134 directly addresses this with four headline features:

  1. Grid layout for chats — arrange related chats and subagent chats side by side in groups
  2. Prompt timeline — a visual timeline in the transcript gutter showing every prompt and its file changes
  3. Find in chat — full-text search across entire conversations, including collapsed content
  4. HTML files in the integrated browser — set the browser as the default editor for HTML files

Two additional improvements — Alt+click to close other editors and side pane layout refinements — round out the release. Let’s dig into each feature.

Grid Layout for Chats in a Session

If you’ve used VS Code’s multi-chat agent sessions (introduced in 1.128 for Claude), you know the challenge: multiple chats in one session, all competing for screen space. You could switch between them, but comparing two chats meant flipping back and forth.

1.134 fixes this with grid layout. You can now drag chats or subagent chats into horizontal or vertical groups, keeping related conversations visible simultaneously. This is particularly powerful for:

  • Comparing approaches: Run two chats with different models or prompts solving the same problem, side by side
  • Monitoring subagents: Drag a running subagent’s chat into a group alongside your main conversation to watch progress without switching tabs
  • Parallel work streams: Keep your “implement feature” chat next to your “write tests” chat

VS Code restores the chat-group layout and focus when you return to the session or reload the window, so your arrangement persists. You can also Alt+select a chat in the Chats picker to open it to the side immediately.

This is a natural evolution of the multi-chat feature. When 1.128 introduced multiple chats per session, it was already clear that side-by-side comparison would eventually be needed. 1.134 delivers it cleanly, using the familiar drag-and-drop paradigm that VS Code users already know from editor splitting.

Prompt Timeline

Long agent sessions are a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can accomplish complex tasks in a single session with many turns. On the other hand, finding a specific prompt from 30 turns ago — especially one that changed specific files — can be an exercise in scrolling frustration.

The new prompt timeline adds a visual timeline to the transcript gutter. Each dot represents one of your prompts, and the highlighted dot marks your current position. Hover over any dot to see a preview of that prompt, then click to jump directly to it.

What makes this especially useful for agent workflows is the file-change information. For prompts that modified files, the timeline shows the number of lines added and removed, with a direct link to open the changes for review. This turns the timeline from a simple navigation aid into an audit trail of what each prompt actually did to your codebase.

The setting sessions.chatTimeline.display controls display: ruler shows the timeline beside the scrollbar, off hides it entirely.

Find in Chat

This is one of those features that makes you wonder why it didn’t exist sooner. Long conversations — whether with Copilot, Claude, or Codex agents — can contain thousands of lines of text, code blocks, tool outputs, and explanations. Finding a specific snippet required scrolling through everything.

Now you can press ⌘F (Windows, Linux Ctrl+F) in the Chat view, chat editors, and the Agents window to open a find widget. The search covers the entire conversation, including content that isn’t currently rendered on screen. As you move between matches, VS Code scrolls each match into view and automatically expands collapsed work summaries if they contain a match.

The find widget supports:

  • Match case — case-sensitive search
  • Match whole words — whole-word matching only
  • Regular expressions — full regex support

For developer workflows, this is huge. You can search for a function name to find where an agent discussed it, look up an error message the agent reported earlier, or find a specific code suggestion without scrolling through dozens of turns. This works across all agent harnesses — Copilot, Claude, and Codex.

Open HTML Files in the Integrated Browser by Default

VS Code’s integrated browser has been steadily improving since its introduction, and 1.134 takes another step by letting you make it the default editor for HTML files. Configure this via the workbench.editorAssociations setting or directly from the editor header.

When enabled, opening an HTML file launches it directly in the integrated browser rather than the text editor. The browser tab maintains its association with the source HTML file, and any links or navigation within the page open in new tabs to preserve that association.

This is a workflow win for front-end developers who frequently preview HTML changes. Instead of editing, saving, switching to a browser, and refreshing, you get a live preview experience directly in VS Code. Combined with the auto-reload feature from 1.133 (workbench.browser.autoReloadOnFileChange), you can edit HTML in one tab and watch it update in the browser tab automatically.

Close Other Editors from a Tab

A small but handy improvement: hold Alt while interacting with an editor tab’s close button, and the action changes from “Close” to “Close Other Editors.” This lets you keep one editor open and close everything else without using the tab context menu. It’s a minor keystroke saver that adds up when you’re managing many open files during agent sessions.

Side Pane Layout Improvements

For users of the single-pane layout (sessions.layout.singlePaneDetailPanel), 1.134 brings several refinements:

  • The layout now follows the workbench.editor.showTabs setting — multiple tabs remain visible, while single and none values use a compact single-title header
  • Text file editors use the same header structure as the Changes editor, with file breadcrumbs in the header for easier navigation
  • The side pane keeps its size and visibility when you switch sessions, preventing the jarring layout shifts that previously occurred

These changes make the single-pane layout more consistent and predictable, which matters for users who spend their entire day in the Agents window.

Community Contributions

VS Code 1.134 includes contributions from 11 community members:

  • @a1exmozz — agentHost telemetry improvements [PR #329961]
  • @abmahdy (Ahmed Mahdy) — terminal completion notification preservation [PR #330570]
  • @benelog (Sanghyuk Jung) — Copilot prompt text fix [PR #328961]
  • @cipheraxat (Akshat Anand) — Modern UI tabs close-button overlay fix [PR #330754]
  • @jadefr (Jade Ferreira Vieira) — Alt+click close other tabs feature [PR #328975]
  • @martincheck (Martin Check) — surrogate pair handling in read_file [PR #331005]
  • @marvinroger (Marvin ROGER) — crash fix for undefined document.queryCommandSupported [PR #330298]
  • @mirimadahmed (Mir) — voice new_session flag handling [PR #330859]
  • @Shaurav-Vora (Shaurav Vora) — Ctrl+F find widget for chat panes [PR #330340]
  • @SimonSiefke (Simon Siefke) — 7 memory leak fixes across extensions view, source control view, code actions, search view, chat widgets, references view, and search result folder matches
  • @yzxcj797 — dead link fix in Copilot extension README [PR #330992]

Simon Siefke continues to be a standout contributor, with 7 memory leak fixes in this release alone, adding to an already impressive track record across recent VS Code versions.

Issue tracking contributors this release: @gjsjohnmurray (John Murray), @RedCMD, @IllusionMH (Andrii Dieiev), and @albertosantini (Alberto Santini).

What This Release Tells Us

VS Code 1.134 is a navigation and organization release. The agent features that shipped over the summer — multi-chat sessions, subagents, the agent host, multiple harnesses — created a new problem: managing all that activity. When you can have 5 chats running across 3 agent harnesses with multiple subagents, the UI needs to help you navigate, not just display.

Grid layout, prompt timeline, and find in chat all address the same underlying challenge: making complex agent workflows navigable. This is a sign that VS Code is moving from “building agent features” to “making agent features usable at scale” — a maturity shift that matters for everyday developer productivity.

The HTML browser default editor is a smaller change but fits the same theme: reducing friction in common workflows. For front-end developers, the edit-preview loop just got shorter.

Getting 1.134

VS Code is rolling out gradually. Use Check for Updates in VS Code to get 1.134 immediately, or download the nightly Insiders build to try upcoming features.

Follow @kkaminsk for more VS Code and AI development updates.

What’s your favorite feature in 1.134? Let us know in the comments or reach out on X.