Dear Microsoft: Stop sticking your AI in my IDE
Dear Microsoft,
I don’t want to have a love-hate relationship with Visual Studio Code, but you’re making it really hard. Once upon a time, Visual Studio Code was just an editor. You configured it with add-ons to make it do whatever job you needed. And that was great! I gravitated towards using VS Code for multiple jobs in various languages. I could set up a Python workflow with extensions to add database-wrangling functionality. I could put together an environment for digital book publishing. I could even set up a project for screenwriting! (Yes, I have a screenplay in progress. A man can dream.)
Now, it’s not like all this went away yesterday. I can still do all of the above. But literally every new feature in VS Code these days is all about agents, AI, and LLMs. It makes me wonder if there’s anyone left in the building who is working on the actual editor anymore.
In the release notes for VS Code 1.127, literally every single new feature save one was about agents and AI. Ditto the version before that. The version before that was a little better, but the trend has been clear for some time now: Visual Studio Code is fast becoming an agent front end first, and everything else is a distant second.
One argument I’ve heard is that VS Code is now a mature project. Because there just isn’t much left to be done to improve the core, you have directed your attention towards other features that will attract new users. And because agent-and-AI mania is still burning through the enterprise (and everyone’s budgets), agent-and-AI features are the order of the day.
But do these features really need to be IDE-level features? Instead of drastically retooling VS Code to support agents, and making AI features native elements of the IDE, shouldn’t the real mission be to support VS Code’s native extensibility? After all, VS Code was built to be extended, and thousands of AI add-ons — including GitHub Copilot and dozens of your own extensions — already take advantage of that.
Is all this really about what AI features VS Code can support natively, or is it more about making VS Code a default first point of contact for agents and AI — specifically GitHub Copilot? Is this less about developer convenience, and more about guaranteeing — however obnoxiously — that agents and AI tools always have a central place in VS Code?
Whatever the goal is, if you think every VS Code user wants an “agentic development environment” instead of an IDE, I think you’re dead wrong.
No doubt AI tools are here to stay. But I do think they will experience a reckoning. Frontier models that do everything and six more things on top of that are becoming of real use only to the big vendors who stick API tollbooths in front of them and construct wetland-devouring data centers the size of the Vegas strip to power them. The future looks more like smaller, locally-hosted models that handle highly specialized tasks and require far fewer resources to train, deploy, and serve. (Even you seem to be moving in that direction, with the Aion on-device models.)
The deeper we go into that reckoning, the less it makes sense to have cart-before-the-horse arrangements like VS Code’s native AI features. How long before these features get hoisted back out of VS Code and moved to an add-on (albeit one we get nagged to install every time we fire up our IDE)? Sooner rather than later, I’d bet.
Still, until that fine day comes, I’m resigning myself to the idea that my current favorite editor will be stuffed with more and more AI features, whether or not they even make sense in my use case, for a long, wearying time to come.
At least I can turn all that stuff off. For now.
As I was writing this (in VS Code, no less), I got an update to VS Code 1.128. There’s one nice feature in there I could see myself using quite widely: the ability to register OS-level keyboard shortcuts. But the rest? All AI, all agents, all the time.
The Context: How Did We Get Here?
Visual Studio Code first emerged in 2015 as a lightweight, cross-platform code editor built on Electron. Unlike its big brother Visual Studio, VS Code was designed from the ground up to be extensible via extensions. The marketplace exploded with plugins for every language, framework, and tool imaginable. Developers loved the freedom to craft their own environment, choosing only what they needed. For years, Microsoft’s updates to VS Code focused on performance, debugging, Git integration, and the editor core.
That changed around 2023, when generative AI tools like GitHub Copilot became mainstream. Microsoft, which acquired GitHub in 2018, quickly integrated Copilot into VS Code as a first-class feature. Initially, it was a single extension—optional and unobtrusive. But with each release, AI capabilities crept deeper into the editor’s DNA. The built-in chat panel, the “Inline Chat” feature, and the “Agent Mode” beta all represent a shift from optional add-on to integral component.
The same pattern appears in other Microsoft products, from Office to Windows. The company believes that AI should be “the new UI,” and it is applying that philosophy aggressively to developer tools. But developers are a different audience: they prize control, predictability, and minimal interference with their flow. Forcing AI into the editor disrupts that delicate balance.
The Case Against AI as a First-Class IDE Feature
Proponents argue that deep AI integration allows for richer context-aware assistance, such as explaining code, generating tests, or refactoring across files. But these capabilities already exist via extensions. The argument that native integration is necessary for performance or security rings hollow: extensions can use the same extension APIs that any other feature relies on.
Moreover, locking AI into the IDE reduces user choice. A developer who prefers a different AI provider, or who wants to use only local models, is forced to work around the built-in AI. The user interface becomes cluttered with AI-related icons, buttons, and panels. The simple, clean editor that once was a hallmark of VS Code is disappearing under a layer of agentic complexity.
There’s also the issue of resource usage. AI models, even small ones, consume CPU, memory, and network bandwidth. When the IDE itself runs AI processes in the background, it can slow down editing, syntax highlighting, and other core tasks. For developers on older hardware or working offline, this is a significant drawback.
The Broader Trend: AI Everywhere, Whether You Like It or Not
Microsoft is not alone in this approach. JetBrains, the maker of IntelliJ IDEA and other IDEs, has also integrated AI assistants. However, JetBrains has maintained a more modular approach, keeping AI as a plugin that can be disabled without affecting the core. VS Code’s strategy is more aggressive: AI features are built into the product’s architecture, making them harder to remove and more psychologically present.
This reflects a larger industry trend: vendors see AI as a way to increase lock-in, gather more telemetry, and upsell cloud subscriptions. But developers are increasingly vocal about their resistance. Surveys show that while many developers use AI tools, they prefer them as opt-in utilities, not forced environment modifications. The backlash against Microsoft’s Recall feature in Windows shows that even the broader public is wary of AI overreach.
What Could Microsoft Do Differently?
First, Microsoft could treat AI as a marketplace category, similar to themes or language support. Let users install an “AI Pack” that includes chat, completion, and agent features if they want—but keep the base editor clean. Second, they could listen to user feedback more intently. The VS Code GitHub repository has numerous issues and discussions requesting more focus on non-AI improvements, such as better remote development, performance optimizations, and improved file management. Yet the release trains continue to prioritize AI.
Third, Microsoft could embrace a hybrid model: keep core AI features optional but ensure they are well-documented and discoverable. The current approach of shipping AI as a default part of the sidebar—complete with a persistent “Ask me anything” input—feels like a land grab for user attention.
Finally, they could invest in making AI extensions better, not the editor itself more AI-centric. By providing better APIs and performance, third-party developers could innovate without Microsoft imposing a single AI provider on everyone.
The Future Is Modular, Not Monolithic
As I wrote earlier, I believe the future of AI in development tools lies in small, specialized, local models. These models can be swapped in and out based on the task—a model for code completion, another for documentation search, another for vulnerability scanning. An IDE that is built around extensibility, like VS Code originally was, is the perfect platform for such a modular AI ecosystem. But that vision requires the IDE to remain a neutral platform, not a vehicle for a specific AI vendor.
If Microsoft continues down its current path, it risks alienating the very developers who made VS Code successful. Many may migrate to other editors—Fleet, Zed, or even return to Neovim and Emacs. The editor wars never really ended; they just went dormant. A misstep like this could reignite them.
As I finish this article, I have already installed an extension to hide the AI chat button from my VS Code status bar. It works, for now. But I know that next week’s update might break that extension, or move the AI feature to another part of the interface. I’m tired of fighting my editor. I just want it to edit.
Microsoft, please listen: stop sticking your AI in my IDE. Let me choose when and how I want to use it. Give me back the editor I loved.
Source: InfoWorld News