News

Hands On with New Visual Studio Copilot 'Planning' Feature (Preview)

• By David Ramel
• 10/23/2025

Microsoft has introduced a new AI-powered capability called Planning in Visual Studio, now available in public preview as part of Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14.

The feature extends GitHub Copilot's Agent Mode to handle larger, multi-step coding tasks with structured reasoning, transparency, and progress tracking. According to Microsoft's announcement yesterday by product manager Rhea Patel: "When you ask Copilot to handle a multi-step task, it automatically determines whether to respond directly or switch into built in planning. Simple prompts get quick answers, while multi-step ones trigger a coordinated plan. When invoked, Planning creates a markdown file that defines the task, research steps, and progress updates as each execution begins. As Copilot works, it revises and refines the plan -- adapting to new context or results."

Planning is designed to address the limitations of single-prompt interactions. When a developer asks Copilot to perform a complex, multi-step task, it determines whether to respond directly or activate its planning mode. A plan is saved to a temporary folder (%TEMP%\VisualStudio\copilot-vs\) and updates dynamically as Copilot executes each step.

Microsoft says Planning is grounded in hierarchical and closed-loop planning research, giving Copilot a structured reasoning framework for large projects. Early internal testing using the SWE-bench benchmark showed measurable improvements: GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4 performed about 15% better in success rate and completed 20% more tasks when using the new planning workflow.

As a preview feature, Planning is still evolving. Microsoft is gathering developer feedback to refine caching, reasoning, and project-context handling. Patel described this as the foundation of planning-driven development in Visual Studio, a step toward making Copilot a more predictable and transparent collaborator.

While the announcement focuses on Visual Studio, similar multi-step capabilities already exist in Visual Studio Code through Copilot Agent Mode. In VS Code, Agent Mode can autonomously plan and execute multi-file edits, run terminal commands, and coordinate tool calls. However, the Visual Studio implementation gives developers a clearer plan file view, tighter integration with project context, and progress visibility--all inside the IDE. In other words, VS Code users already have comparable functionality under a different name, but Visual Studio now brings that structured transparency into its own environment.

Planning in Visual Studio represents a visible step toward agentic AI workflows. Instead of responding to isolated prompts, Copilot now generates a transparent, traceable plan that outlines what it will do before making changes. This makes AI-assisted development more predictable, reviewable, and easier to understand, especially for large or collaborative projects.

Going Hands-On
To try this out, I updated my Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition and put the functionality through its paces. First Planning needs to be enabled (Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Enable Planning). When hovering over that option, you are told it "Enables Copilot's multi-step planning capabilities in agent mode, including creating plans, tracking progress and adapting plans during execution."

I don't use VS that much, mostly just for demo purposes, so, after enabling the Planning preview, I bungled around without kicking off any planning functionality in Copilot Chat before the tool itself told me I needed to switch to the Chat's Agent option, instead of Ask, which I was in. Duh. Don't make that rookie mistake.

After that, it worked fine with a simple prompt: "Can you add a 24-hour timeline slider so I can scrub and view service changes at any timestamp in the last 24 hours?"

I don't know what that means exactly; it was provided to me by AI.

The prompt kicked off planning, which generated this plan in a new .md file:

I asked Copilot to explain how this worked so I can stick the info in my article. It replied:

The planner created a concise, ordered set of atomic steps describing exactly what to change and where, then executed them one-by-one while minimizing workspace reads. It first discovered the project and key files, read Program.cs to understand the app entry points, and produced a 9-step plan listing each file to create or modify. Each step was implemented as a single-file edit or creation (with a brief explanation), edits were validated by checking for compilation errors, and any unexpected issues would be recorded and the plan adapted. This made the change safe, reviewable, and repeatable.

Patel said a few details to keep in mind include:

• The plan is written to a temporary file (%TEMP%\VisualStudio\copilot-vs\). To reuse it across threads, add it to your repo. If you want longer-term storage options, upvote this request.
• If you edit the plan while a response is running, changes may not take effect immediately. Stop the response, update the file or prompt, and restart it. We're exploring ways to make mid-response edits smoother. Upvote this idea if you'd like to see it sooner.
• Progress is tracked directly in the plan file, so you can always see what's completed and what's next.

"We're actively collecting feedback as we evolve Copilot's planning system to better fit your workflow," Patel said." This marks the foundation of planning-driven development in Visual Studio. Upcoming improvements will focus on smarter caching, refined reasoning, and deeper project context. It's an early milestone -- but one we believe will make Copilot a more predictable and transparent collaborator. Share your feedback here: Planning/To dos in Copilot Chat."

That Developer Community post indicates the functionality was proposed back in August.

In the comments section, when asked about this functionality in the new Visuals Studio 2026 Insiders, Patel said a new build was dropping today, Oct. 23, with Planning. You can find it here.