Visually indicate the currently active Copilot account in the VS Code Chat Side Bar

[MurzNN]

Now, there is no indication at all in the Chat Sidebar panel about which exact account is active, which confuses users with multiple Copilot accounts. And I can't find the correct active account indication in all other places of the VS Code UI too!

The only way to check the currently active account seems to be to go to the Extensions tab, find there the "GitHub Copilot Chat" extension, right-click, choose "Account Preferences" there, and see a small gray description indicating which account is active.

But even this indicator can show the wrong information, because of the issue #291504.

So, the feature request is to add a visual indicator of the currently active Copilot account to the VS Code Chat Side Bar, also it would be useful in the "Copilot Usage" popover.

And would be awesome to allow switching the account from this indicator too, without forcing users to make the extension settings journey.

[TylerLeonhardt]

@sandy081 would this be you surfacing the default Account stuff?

[sandy081]

@TylerLeonhardt Yes, this spans both areas. The default account data comes from the account preferences side which I own, but where and how to surface it in the Chat sidebar UI would be a decision for the chat team. Let's discuss and figure out the right approach together.

[TylerLeonhardt]

The Account Menu has historically been about collecting accounts, not specifying accounts that features use so I'm inclined to say let's not put it there.

The copilot icon in the status bar makes the most sense to me as that has quota info and the likes which is very coupled to your identity

[sandy081]

The Copilot status bar icon is contextual, so I see the appeal. But I'm a bit wary of spreading account info across too many surfaces — it gets hard to maintain and reason about.

What about having a dedicated Copilot entry in the Account menu instead? It's where users already go to manage accounts, and it would keep everything consolidated in one place rather than scattered across status bar, sidebar, and settings.

[TylerLeonhardt]

That's fine and follows the current pattern of Settings Sync, Cloud Changes, Tunnels having entries there.