New VSCode terminal intellisense (preview) is causing usage issues and confusion

[servient-ashwin]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes/No : N/A

• VS Code Version: 1.107.0 (Universal)
  Commit: 618725e
  Date: 2025-12-10T07:43:47.883Z (1 wk ago)
  Electron: 39.2.3
  ElectronBuildId: 12895514
  Chromium: 142.0.7444.175
  Node.js: 22.21.1
  V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
• OS Version: Darwin x64 21.6.0 / Monterey 12.7.6 (21H1320)

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Have this version of VSCode
2. Open new terminal
3. Type in a command (example: npm)
4. New intellisense suggestion shows up
5. the natural habit is to hit enter when intellisense suggestion shows up (given the first one is accurate)
6. executes the command

Expected behavior:

1. Have this version of VSCode
2. Open new terminal
3. Try to type in a command (example: npm)
4. New intellisense suggestion shows up
5. the natural habit is to hit enter when intellisense suggestion shows up (given the first one is accurate)
6. adds the suggested intellisense text to the terminal rather than run it

In order for this to work properly you have to hit tab which is a suggestion in a really tiny shaded text on the intellisense box.
I suppose this is a carry forward of the new AI chatbot era use case. However intellisense is not meant to be used as AI companion for completion. Intellisense was/is used to have the terms/syntax straight from the source.
Tab like behavior is only compatible if you are actually generating AI Completions and not intellisense that is only deriving things from already existing patterns.

Intellisense having separate behaviors on the code editor and terminal is really bugging and more-so the fact that it was automatically enabled or has the default as opt-out behavior.

I really like the feature, I do, but the constant struggle between tab and enter has me execute incomplete commands more times than I can count.

if (intellisense):
 > pressing enter adds to the code/terminal and does not `execute`
 > presing tab does what pressing tab does 
if (ai completion):
 > pressing `tab` `completes` the rest of the text
 > presing `enter` goes to a new line  (code) or executes(terminal)

Let me know if this makes sense or if there are decisions or workflows that I am not aware of.

[vs-code-engineering]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code; the latest stable release is 1.107.1. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[servient-ashwin]

This issue is version independent after the launch of VSCode terminal intellisense.

[Tyriar]

Note that terminal intellisense has nothing to do with AI. In the editor, tab and enter trigger the intellisense completion. The difference here is that there's a border, it's not solid, which is a subtle indicator that it behaves a little differently (only tab is consumed). There's a lot of background to how we came to this decision, but basically more people get frustrated when enter is used also.

Thanks for the feedback though. There's a big discussion in #282268 about this being the default, we'll post any updates there.