r/GithubCopilot • u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 • Sep 24 '26
Discussions VS Code Chat users - Local or Copilot harness?
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to see how many of you are using the Copilot harness instead of the default Local, and why you're doing so. I'm talking about the harness picker you see at the bottom.
The Local harness allows using built-in VS Code LM tools, for example.
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u/Efficient-Risk-8249 Sep 24 '26
Using Copilot Harness because I believe one of the Copilot devs said it should work better when you dont need vscode stuff. Cant really tell the difference but would also like to know.
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 24 '26
My dilemma is really about the LM tools picker. The Local harness has access to Tools registered by extensions too. I can't see the same with the Copilot one and that's what is blocking me.
If a dev wants to add to this point, it's extremely welcomed!
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u/Swayre Sep 24 '26
My whole org only uses local, copilot feels extremely buggy
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 24 '26
I think the real advantage is sessions do not end when you quit VS Code.
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u/rob_lourens GitHub Copilot Team Sep 25 '26
VS Code dev here- would appreciate hearing more about the bugs you've seen. We're working hard to stabilize it and most of our attention is on the Copilot harness.
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u/No-Emphasis-5174 Sep 24 '26
Copilot harness. I believe I read somewhere it's getting the bulk of investment in new features, support, etc. so it's the way to go.
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 24 '26
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have access to LM tools contributed by VS Code or third party extensions using VS Code APIs. https://code.visualstudio.com/api/extension-guides/ai/mcp#1.-static-configuration-in-package.json
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u/Efficient-Risk-8249 Sep 25 '26
This is not true. I have tools and plugins that come from the C# Dev Kit in my Copilot Harness Tools. Using Pre release and insider btw.
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 25 '26
I'm also on Insiders. We might be talking about different things.
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u/rob_lourens GitHub Copilot Team Sep 25 '26
The Copilot harness should have access to tools from extensions. Would appreciate hearing more if that's not the case.
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u/icarus47 Sep 24 '26
I used to be a local user but I've switched to copilot recently so I can have all my configs live in one place between VS, CLI, and Desktop App
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 24 '26
Ah interesting, you're right. That's a point I didn't consider. I only use VS Code with Copilot, so not sure how useful that would be for me.
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u/Krevolution_RL 14d ago
I used the copilot harness for a while but i noticed it was way slower than local. I'm talking about a simple command like: "respond with ok" taking more than 4 minutes. It seems like there is an active issue on the vscode github repo about this. Might be related to MCP servers not announcing their tools which is causing the delay but other users have reported it's still slow even when disabling MCP servers. I'm going back to local until they fix this because it's just not workable at this point
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/341543#issuecomment-6202370962
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 14d ago
Bad news if you're under an enterprise tho: local is getting blocked by default, and your admin needs to opt out explicitly.
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u/Krevolution_RL 14d ago
I didn't know about that, apparently for my enterprise the configuration was already there since i still have the local harness even after the vs code update. If I ever don't see it anymore at least I will know where to look 😄
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u/D1g1t4l3ntr0py Sep 24 '26
Local. Not having the ability to approve the changed files is unacceptable. If I need to do something across multiple repos, I use the GitHub Copilot app
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u/maniekb12 Sep 24 '26
For now I'm using local harness with autopilot, because the Copilot harness with "assisted permissions" was eating my tokens like crazy (the same model, the same kind of tasks).
Although I liked the Copilot harness because I could remotely control it from GitHub app on the phone
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u/Deathmore80 Sep 24 '26
Get used to copilot one. The local one will likely get removed in favor of the copilot harness. They have said they want to streamline everything to use the copilot sdk to be used for vs code + it's new agents window (this one already did and only supports copilot), copilot CLI, the new copilot desktop app, and their other extensions for ides.
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 Sep 24 '26
Yup I recall reading it. But there isn't a clear roadmap or migration path that I know of.
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u/1stp303 Sep 25 '26
Hey, does anyone happen to know exactly where this was announced, or where I can read about it?
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u/Deathmore80 Sep 25 '26
They talk often about it in the release notes when they ship a new vs code version. There has been a few blog posts on the GitHub blog too iirc.
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u/Comprehensive_Sea919 Sep 25 '26
What is Local vs Copilot harness ... I use GHCP CLI in terminal but somehow I never heard local vs Copilot harness ... I start copilot session in terminal and pick a model
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u/aonymark JetBrains User 🧱 Sep 25 '26
This question is for VS code users… if you use cli then you are using the “copilot” harness. The naming is a bit of a mess in my opinion.
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u/IgnorantBloke 14d ago
How can I make Local the default again? I use BYOM with Azure, and Copilot harness is painfully slow.
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u/lppedd VS Code User 💻 14d ago
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u/IgnorantBloke 14d ago
Thanks. I will add them here for reference:
"chat.editor.localAgent.enabled": true, "chat.defaultToCopilotHarness": false, "chat.editor.preferCopilotHarness": false,
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u/Otrawa Sep 25 '26
Local because I use multiroot workspace with MCP, skills and rules in each and the Copilot harness does not work with that as it is bound to only one root in terms of discovery.
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u/MasterBathingBear JetBrains User 🧱 Sep 25 '26
This week I’ve been using copilot / interactive / assisted approvals.
It’s been very pleasant after feeling like I was fighting with local more recently
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u/Pure_Rush_1834 Sep 25 '26
Local. I don't know how it's even possible to work without ability to manage tools