Simply as OpenAI was going all in on the developer ecosystem, with the acquisition of Windsurf and the launch of Codex, Microsoft has entered the chat too. The tech large introduced that it will make GitHub Copilot in VS Code open-source.
Throughout his keynote speech at Microsoft Construct 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned he’s enthusiastic about this growth. “This can be a huge deal. Beginning immediately, we’ll combine these AI-powered capabilities straight into the core of VS Code, bringing them into the identical open supply repo that powers the world’s most liked dev instrument.”
“We consider that the way forward for code editors ought to be open and powered by AI,” the VS Code staff mentioned in a press release. “As AI turns into core to the developer expertise in VS Code, we intend to remain true to our founding growth ideas: open, collaborative, and community-driven.”
The corporate mentioned that it’s going to start open-sourcing the GitHub Copilot Chat extension below the MIT license and plans to refactor key AI parts into the core of its editor.
“What we heard from some organisations is that they actually don’t like closed supply IDEs, so by making the opposite items open supply, I believe we handle that want,” mentioned Erich Gamma, creator of VS Code, in a current podcast. He added that now enterprises have a selection between closed supply and open supply.
Open sourcing is predicted to help third-party extension builders as nicely. “We wish to make it simpler for these extension authors to construct, debug, and check their extensions,” the VS Code staff mentioned, mentioning the present limitations as a consequence of a scarcity of supply code entry.
Over the approaching weeks, Microsoft will start open-sourcing Copilot Chat and migrating parts into VS Code’s core. It additionally plans to launch its immediate testing infrastructure to help contributors in reliably constructing and testing AI options.
Why Open Supply Now?
The corporate mentioned that over the previous few months, it has noticed important shifts in AI growth that inspire it to transition its AI efforts in VS Code from closed to open supply.
In its weblog publish, the corporate mentioned that enormous language fashions have improved significantly, decreasing the necessity for proprietary “secret sauce” prompting methods.
On the identical time, the preferred and efficient consumer expertise approaches for AI interactions have turn out to be widespread throughout completely different editors. By making these UI components accessible in a secure, open codebase, we wish to empower the neighborhood to refine and construct upon them.
This positively calls out AI coding instruments like Cursor, valued at $9B, and Windsurf, bought to OpenAI for $3B—each forks of Microsoft-owned VS Code.
“Is it simply me or is it kinda humorous that OpenAI purchased Windsurf for $3B after which Microsoft simply open-sourced Copilot,” quipped a consumer on X.
One other consumer posted, “Microsoft simply made Copilot in VS Code open supply AI editor for all! RIP cursor and Windsurf.”
However, Kartik Hariharan, a tech influencer, mentioned that Microsoft’s open-sourcing Copilot at this stage looks like chucking up the sponge. He believes they will’t determine methods to make the product work, so they’re handing it over to the open-source neighborhood to resolve.
“The OSS neighborhood doesn’t have the sources to make Copilot aggressive with Cursor, Windsurf, and many others,” he added.
Nonetheless, Gamma shared that Visible Studio Code has reached 40 million customers. In response to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 73.6% of 58,121 respondents use VS Code, making it by far probably the most extensively adopted editor amongst builders. In distinction, Cursor and Windsurf every had round 1 million customers as of 2025.
Talking of VS Code forks, Gamma mentioned that some organisations mislead customers by making AI options really feel overly dominant, like including a blue button for AI in every single place, with out sustaining the platform’s openness that VS Code stands for.
He mentioned that forks like Cursor make modifications reminiscent of transferring the exercise bar to the highest, which aren’t essentially dangerous, however they don’t contribute to the principle VS Code venture.
Copilot will get Agentic
Microsoft has additionally introduced a brand new coding agent for GitHub Copilot. Embedded straight into GitHub, the agent begins working while you assign a GitHub challenge to Copilot or immediate it in VS Code.
Nadella mentioned that the agent is able to upgrading frameworks like Java 8 to Java 21 or .NET 6 to 9, and migrating any on-premise app to the cloud. It creates a plan in your code and dependencies, suggests fixes alongside the best way, learns from the modifications you make, and makes your entire course of seamless. Microsoft’s CEO gave a reside demo of it on stage, the place it debugged a difficulty.
The tech large has launched a brand new strategy, which it calls agentic DevOps. This can be a reimagining of conventional DevOps, the place clever brokers collaborate with builders and with one another to automate and optimise each stage of the software program lifecycle. These brokers can tackle duties like bug fixes, small options, and documentation, permitting builders to remain centered on extra important work.
With Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP), Microsoft is giving its coding agent entry to information and instruments past GitHub. Repositories can now be linked to exterior MCP servers via their settings, whereas GitHub’s official MCP server continues to supply entry to all native GitHub information.
However the agent’s capabilities don’t cease at textual content. Powered by imaginative and prescient fashions, it may additionally interpret photographs included in points. Builders can now drop in screenshots of bugs or visible mockups of options, and the agent will perceive and act on them.
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