GitHub Copilot: Multi-Root Workspace Agent Sessions
GitHub CopilotGitHub shipped an experimental update in VS Code 1.136 that lets Copilot and Claude agent sessions in the editor window's Chat view work across every folder in a multi-root workspace, instead of being confined to a single root. Agents can now resolve folders by project name rather than requiring an absolute path or workspace URI, and session tools preserve working directories for each folder in the workspace. Agent hooks remain scoped to a single folder for now, and VS Code prompts the user to pick a primary folder when hooks exist in more than one. The change directly answers a long-requested capability for teams running monorepos or multi-service codebases in a single VS Code window.
Key Takeaways
- Multi-root workspace support lets Copilot and Claude agent sessions operate across every folder in a workspace, not just one root.
- Agents can now resolve folders by project name, so a prompt like "run the tests in the api project" works without needing a full file path.
- The capability ships as experimental and is currently limited to the Chat view inside the editor window.
- Agent hooks stay single-folder, and VS Code asks the developer to pick a primary folder when hooks exist in more than one.
- The update answers a long-standing developer request for monorepo and multi-service support in Copilot's agent mode, echoed in open GitHub feature-request issues.
- It shipped as part of VS Code 1.136, the same release that introduced Agent Merge for automating pull-request cleanup.
Sources & Mentions
3 external resources covering this update
What Changed
GitHub Copilot's editor-window Chat view has historically treated a VS Code workspace as a single folder, even when a developer had opened a .code-workspace file spanning several project roots. With VS Code 1.136, Copilot and Claude agent sessions in that Chat view now support multi-root workspaces, meaning an agent can see and act across every folder that is part of the workspace rather than just the one VS Code happens to treat as active.
Resolving Folders by Name
A practical side effect of the update is smarter folder resolution. Previously, directing an agent to a specific part of a multi-root setup meant supplying an absolute path or a workspace URI. Agents can now resolve a folder by its project name instead, so a request like "run the tests in the api folder" or "check the failing build in the worker service" resolves correctly without the developer having to type out a path. If two folders in the workspace happen to share a name, the agent reports the possible matches rather than guessing which one was intended.
Session tooling also now preserves per-folder working directories across the workspace, so commands and file operations an agent runs stay scoped to the correct project even when several are open side by side.
Where the Limits Are
The capability is explicitly scoped to the editor window's Chat view for this release. Agent hooks, the automation that triggers on session lifecycle events, still apply to only a single workspace folder. When VS Code detects hooks defined in more than one folder of a multi-root workspace, it prompts the developer to choose which folder's hooks should take priority as the primary source.
Why It Matters
Developers working across monorepos, or across a handful of related repositories opened together as a multi-root workspace, have been asking for exactly this kind of cross-folder agent support; GitHub's own developer community has open feature requests specifically asking that Copilot's agent mode work across multiple workspace folders simultaneously. By letting a single agent session reason about, and act across, every folder in the workspace, GitHub Copilot removes one of the more common workarounds developers had adopted: running a separate agent session per folder and manually stitching results together. The feature currently carries an "Experimental" label, so GitHub is likely to keep refining folder resolution and hook behavior based on how teams use it in practice.