Agents window should show and continue local Copilot Chat Agent sessions
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
The Agents window documentation says the Agents window and the Chat view share the same agent sessions and settings, so users can move between an editor-focused workflow and an agent-focused workflow without losing context.
From the user side, the current behavior still feels split: normal local Copilot Agent sessions started from the Chat view/sidebar are not clearly visible or continuable in the Agents window. The Agents window appears centered on Copilot CLI, Copilot Cloud, and third-party agent-host sessions, while the Chat view's native/local Copilot Agent experience remains separate.
Expected:
* A local Copilot Agent session started in the Chat view/sidebar can be found, opened, and continued in the Agents window.
* A compatible session started in the Agents window can be found and continued from the Chat view where appropriate.
* If local/workbench Copilot Agent sessions are intentionally not supported in the Agents window yet, the UI and docs should make that distinction clear.
Why this matters:
The Chat view's local Copilot Agent has the native VS Code experience: workbench context, VS Code tools, extension-provided tools, MCP/model configuration, and integrated terminal behavior. The Agents window is useful for cross-project orchestration, but if it only supports different session backends, users have to choose between the native agent experience and the new agent-focused session manager.
Related issues:
* #319415 tracks Copilot CLI sessions appearing in the regular Chat Sessions panel but not in the Agents window.
* #317895 tracks MCP configuration and BYOK model parity gaps for the Agents window local agent.
* #323969 tracks session-reference attachment support across chat/session types.
* #323970 tracks full session porting for Continue in Agent Host, including local/workbench chat sessions.
This is filed as a user-facing integration gap rather than a request for a specific implementation. The important outcome is that the normal Copilot Agent experience in the Chat view and the new Agents window do not feel like separate products with separate histories.
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Assessment
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