New features and improvements in Copilot for JetBrains

GitHub Copilot for JetBrains 1.18.0 brings AI-assisted tool approvals, more control over agent conversations, and shared skills and instructions for your organization. You can also review plans with the Codex agent and manage MCP tools with persistent controls.

AI-assisted tool approvals, called assisted approvals, are now in public preview for Copilot agent sessions. Low-risk tool calls receive automatic approval, while higher-risk actions continue to prompt you for a decision.

This gives you fewer approval interruptions for low-risk actions while keeping higher-risk decisions in your hands.

You can now re-edit a previous user message in a Copilot agent session. Before sending your replacement message, Copilot rewinds both the conversation and file changes.

This lets you revise an earlier request and continue from that point, rather than adding another message to correct the direction of the conversation.

Local and Copilot agent sessions now support organization and enterprise skills, along with organization-managed custom instructions. You can use shared skills and organizational guidance in both types of sessions.

The Codex agent now supports plan mode. You can review, refine, or approve a plan before implementation, giving you an opportunity to shape the approach before the agent starts making changes.

A new setting lets you turn the built-in GitHub MCP Server on or off without changing manually configured MCP servers. The built-in server remains enabled by default.

Copilot agent sessions also gain persistent per-tool controls for MCP servers. You can manage individual tools as well as control whether the built-in server is enabled.

A new side-by-side chat panel switcher in the session toolbar lets you chat in the editor while browsing sessions in the tool window. You can keep your conversation open alongside the session list.

Other updates make features and settings easier to discover:

• Added browsable usage tips above the chat input with shortcuts to commands, customizations, and settings
• Simplified the chat welcome screen and added a direct feedback link
• Labeled the built-in GitHub MCP Server in the tool configuration interface and added a direct link to its settings
• Restored shortcuts for updating agent instructions and viewing usage-based billing best practices
• Clarified the /init tip and grouped it with customizations

This update improves inline chat reliability, including preserving your edits when requests end and respecting selected thinking effort and context window settings. It also addresses Codex session startup issues, improves behavior across multiple project windows, and restores embedded editors and message re-editing on IntelliJ 2026.3 EAP builds.

Inline chat and its entry points are now hidden in JetBrains Gateway and remote development environments.

If you use a JetBrains IDE version 2025.1, you will see advance notice to upgrade to 2026.1 or later. Support remains unchanged in this release.

We encourage you to try out the latest version of the GitHub Copilot plugin and share your feedback. Your input is invaluable in helping us refine and improve the product.

Your feedback drives improvements. We’d love to hear about your experience in the following channels:

• In-product feedback: Use the feedback options within your IDE.
• Feedback repository: Share your thoughts in the GitHub Copilot for JetBrains IDEs issues.