Rider 2026.2 Release Candidate Is Out!

JetBrains released the Rider 2026.2 Release Candidate, integrating AI agent skills, native GitHub Copilot, and performance improvements for .NET and game development. The update includes faster debugger launch, branch switching, and Unreal Engine indexing, along with new Godot tooling and WPF Hot Reload.

.NET Tools Essential productivity kit for .NET and game developers .NET Tools /dotnet/category/net-tools/ Releases /dotnet/category/releases/ Rider /dotnet/category/rider/ Rider 2026.2 Release Candidate Is Out The Rider 2026.2 Release Candidate is ready for you to try. This upcoming release opens the IDE’s own intelligence to your AI coding agents, brings GitHub Copilot in natively, and delivers a wave of performance gains across both .NET and game development. Rider 2026.2 makes debugger launch and branch switching noticeably faster, speeds up Unreal Engine indexing, and expands game development support with new project templates and professional Godot tooling. If you’d like to explore what’s coming, you can download the RC build right now: Highlights of this release - Agent skills that connect AI agents to Rider’s own intelligence – coverage data https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/05/22/claude-codex-ai-agent-skill-for-writing-tests/ , profiler https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/06/25/performance-profiling-agent-skill-in-rider/ , and code analysis https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/06/08/rider-2026-2-code-quality-check-hooks-for-ai-agents/ quality-check-hooks-for-claude-code – for more accurate results and better code quality. - Support for official Microsoft .NET, Aspire, and Azure Agent Skills directly from the IDE. GitHub Copilot now natively built in https://blog.jetbrains.com/ai/2026/06/github-copilot-now-an-integrated-agent/ and available out of the box.- Faster .NET workflows: ~2.8s quicker debugger launch on Windows, 2–3× faster branch switching in Roslyn solutions, and 7–8% lower backend memory use. - Faster Unreal Engine projects: ~2× faster C++ indexing when opening the generated .sln . WPF Hot Reload for editing XAML https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/06/03/wpf-hot-reload-in-jetbrains-rider/ while the app runs.- Redesigned NuGet tool window - File-based C app templates. - Intention previews to see quick-fix and context-action changes before applying them. - New Game Development category in the New Project dialog, with ready-made Godot and CMake templates plus preconfigured build settings and run configurations. - Better UE navigation: UInterface implementation tracking and Gameplay Tag usages surfaced in Blueprints via Code Vision and Find Usages. - Professional Godot support: configurable GDScript formatter, drag scene nodes into code, Autoload/UID resolution, and the official Rider integration addon on the Godot Asset Store. Natvis support on Linux and macOS https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2026/07/06/natvis-comes-to-linux-and-macos-in-rider-2026-2-debugger/ , including godot-cpp.natvis , plus ISPC language support.- TypeScript 7 support for faster large-codebase workflows. - Built-in Azure Functions support and Azure DevOps pull requests. Try it out and share your feedback You can download and install Rider 2026.2 RC today: We’d love to hear what you think. If you run into issues or have suggestions, please report them via YouTrack https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issues?q=project:%20Rider%20 or reach out to us on X https://x.com/JetBrainsRider . Subscribe to a monthly digest curated from the .NET Tools blog: