# VS Code 1.142: Copilot Canvases, Portable Chats, Harness Mandate > Source: > Published: 2026-10-20 01:13:53+00:00 VS Code 1.142 landed on October 14 with three agent-focused changes worth your attention: canvases let you and Copilot co-edit the same artifact in real time, portable chat sessions let you move an active conversation to a new Git worktree without losing history, and — buried in the enterprise settings docs — organizations with sandboxing enabled now have no choice but to run the Copilot harness. The first two are genuinely useful. The third is a policy shift dressed as a feature. ## Agent Canvases: Co-Edit With AI in Real Time The most interesting addition in 1.142 is canvases — an interactive panel that opens beside the chat so you and the agent can manipulate the same artifact simultaneously. Instead of the usual back-and-forth of describing what you want and receiving a text response, both you and the agent inspect and modify the same object directly. Microsoft’s flagship example is a Kanban board. The agent breaks your feature into discrete tasks, updates statuses as it writes code, and logs newly discovered bugs onto the board. You can drag cards around or add items manually at any point. It sounds modest, but the conceptual shift matters: this is co-editing, not prompting. ``` // settings.json { "chat.canvases.enabled": true } ``` To try it: add the setting above, start a new Copilot session, then type `/create-canvas` and describe the artifact you want. VS Code creates a canvas extension in your workspace and opens it alongside the chat. Note the constraints: canvases are in Preview, limited to the VS Code desktop app, local sessions only, and require the Copilot harness. Remote sessions and custom harnesses are not supported yet. Windsurf recently shipped an Agent Command Center with a similar Kanban-style view for tracking agent runs. [VS Code canvases](https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_142) go further — the agent and developer share actual artifact state, not just a task list. That’s a meaningful distinction for complex, multi-step work. ## The Copilot Harness Mandate: Read This Before Your Next Enterprise Update Here’s the change that generated the most friction. Starting with 1.142, if your organization sets `sandbox.enabled = true` or configures any `permissions.*` key in unified managed settings, VS Code *requires* the Copilot harness and automatically migrates existing Local mode chats to it — preserving your conversation transcript but removing your choice of runtime. Several developers noticed this without warning. [GitHub issue #341937](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/341937) documents the confusion: developers lost Local mode access unexpectedly after updating. Microsoft’s reasoning is coherent — only the Copilot runtime can reliably enforce the sandboxing and permission policies an enterprise administrator configures. Local mode simply doesn’t have the hooks. That said, it means Microsoft’s own runtime is now the required gatekeeper for enterprise agent compliance. Teams using BYOK setups or open runtimes get squeezed out at the policy level, not the feature level. Enterprise admins who need a grace period can set `vscode.temporaryDefaultToLocalHarness = true` in [unified managed settings](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/enterprise-administrators/enterprise-managed-settings) to delay migration. That flag will not last forever. ## Portable Chat Sessions A quieter but useful addition: you can now move an active agent conversation to a different folder or a new Git worktree without losing chat history. Ask the agent in natural language — “move this chat to [other folder]” — and it finishes the current turn, moves the session, shows a workspace-change notice, then continues automatically in the new location. Your original checkout stays untouched. For developers who start an investigation in one repo and realize mid-chat they need to implement the fix in a different branch or worktree, this eliminates the restart cycle. Current constraints: Codex harness or Codex Interactive mode, single-folder sessions only. ## Model Picker and Markdown The model picker gets a tabbed redesign, cleanly separating GitHub Copilot models from BYOK (bring-your-own-key) models. Hovering over a model now exposes its thinking level and context window size for inline adjustment — no digging through `settings.json`. The Markdown editor also gains practical improvements: paste images directly, rename file links with `F2`, navigate headings through breadcrumbs, and copy code blocks with a hover button. ## What to Do Now - Enable `chat.canvases.enabled` in settings and try`/create-canvas` — even a simple Kanban board changes how you think about longer agentic tasks. - If you’re in an enterprise environment, check whether your organization has sandboxing or permissions configured. If so, your Local mode is already migrated or will be soon. - Open the model picker and confirm BYOK models appear on the new tab — the separation is cleaner, but verify your custom keys came through. - Enterprise admins: review the [enterprise managed settings reference](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/enterprise-administrators/enterprise-managed-settings) before your next policy update and consider whether the grace period flag is appropriate for your team.