Yesterday at GitHub Universe, GitHub announced support for custom agents. Custom agents are specialized configurations with custom prompts and context that focus Copilot on specific development tasks.

On the C++ team, we have a similar goal: Provide differentiated capabilities that optimize GitHub Copilot for C++ development tasks. As a first step towards this goal, we’re announcing new capabilities for GitHub Copilot that support C++ developers in three development tasks:

• Upgrade Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools
• Improve C++ build performance
• Perform large-scale C++ refactors

These experiences will be available soon as a Private Preview in Visual Studio 2026. Join the waitlist for Private Preview today.

Upgrade MSVC with GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++

GitHub Copilot’s app modernization capabilities help you migrate your C++ projects to a newer version of the MSVC Build Tools. After you retarget your project, it’s possible that additional source code or project system changes will be needed due to deprecations or fixes in the newer version of MSVC. Copilot will help you iterate through these changes until all warnings and errors are resolved.

Improve C++ build performance with GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows

GitHub Copilot’s build performance capabilities analyze your C++ build and suggest changes to improve build performance. This agent can, for example, create a precompiled header for expensive #include files, or adjust function inlining (__forceinline) to address bottlenecks in your build.

Perform large-scale C++ refactors with C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot

C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot expose the power of C++ IntelliSense to GitHub Copilot. This suite of tools improves the accuracy and performance of C++ code editing queries. You can interact with these tools directly in Copilot Chat, or create prompt files to facilitate more complex, codebase-wide refactoring tasks.

Thank you for your feedback

We’re excited to build alongside you and deliver new capabilities that make GitHub Copilot even more valuable for C++ developers. We’ve already engaged with internal Microsoft developers, and we’re now rolling these experiences out in Private Preview to prioritize deeper customer feedback from a wide range of C++ customers.

If you’re curious about these new capabilities, sign up for the Private Preview waitlist and stay tuned for more information on the C++ team blog. If you have general feedback on Visual Studio 2026, you can file an issue or suggestion on Developer Community.