VS Code v1.110 and Copilot Chat v0.38.0 issue - GitHub Copilot Chat is stuck in "Ask" mode

[SuhasSrinivasan]

Dear Developers,

Thank you for developing and maintaining VS Code!

• Copilot Chat Extension Version: 0.38.0
• OS Version: macOS 26.3
• Feature (e.g. agent/edit/ask mode): Agent mode picker is broken
• Selected model: Changing models has no effect
• VS Code Version: Version: 1.110.0
  Commit: 0870c2a
  Date: 2026-03-04T01:20:28.863Z
  Electron: 39.6.0
  ElectronBuildId: 13330601
  Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
  Node.js: 22.22.0
  V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
  OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open Settings > uncheck chat.editMode.hidden (this change has no benefit, but wanted to try)
2. Open GitHub Copilot Chat
3. There is no longer availability of other Agent types and the dropdown only shows "Ask"
4. Clicking on "Ask" only displays the option "Configure Custom Agents"
5. Clicking on Configure Custom Agents shows a command palette dropdown of
   Create new custom agent
   Generate agent
   Ask
   Edit
   Explore
   Plan
6. Using the default "Ask" mode behaves as previously, where all code is generated in the chat panel/window.

Request:
Please provide a fix so that agent modes are restored in the picker/dropdown and go back to how they were in VS Code v1.109 and earlier.

[SuhasSrinivasan]

@lramos15 and @roblourens

Thank you for reviewing!
Will there be a fix soon?

This issue is significantly limiting the everyday workflow of using the Agent Modes, especially Edit Agent.

[roblourens]

I can't reproduce that. Do you see any errors in the Window or Copilot Chat output channels? Does restoring that setting fix it?

[SuhasSrinivasan]

Hi @roblourens ,

Please see screenshots below.

---

GitHub Copilot Chat was updated today to 0.38.1, but still the issue exists.

Tried check and uncheck for chat.editMode.hidden . This has no effect on the issue.

There are no errors in the Copilot chat, it works like previous versions of "Ask" agent mode. It is stuck like that now.

Do you see any errors in the Window

Where would VS Code window/UI errors be logged?

[SuhasSrinivasan]

@roblourens

Additional steps I tried now:

1. Quit VS Code
2. Erased all extensions from ~/.vscode/extensions/
3. Start VS Code
4. Verified that all extensions are gone
5. Select notification to Enable AI features which installs the GitHub Copilot Chat extension
6. Issue still exists i.e., chat is still stuck in Ask mode and no other modes are available

[SuhasSrinivasan]

@roblourens

Some more and hopefully final troubleshooting.

I uninstalled VS Code v1.110, erased ~/.vscode and ~/Library/Application Support/Code.

Downloaded VS Code v1.109.5, disabled auto-update, only installed GitHub Copilot Chat extension, which automatically installed v0.37.9.

Please see screenshot below, this is the missing behavior/functionality in VS Code v1.110 and GitHub Copilot Chat v0.38.+.

And the below setting was likely conflicting with VS Code v1.110 and GitHub Copilot Chat v0.38.+

"chat.agent.enabled": false

I had disabled Agent long time back. But it still allowed changing between Ask and Edit.

[hashTagKC]

Found this line in my project's .vscode/settings.json. Deleted it and the agents immediately returned. BTW, the UI settings showed the agent as enabled.
"chat.agent.enabled": false