Visual Studio 18.9 Adds Git Worktrees, Copilot Reasoning Controls

Microsoft’s Visual Studio 18.9 update targets two growing demands in software development: managing several streams of code at once and controlling how generative AI assists programmers. Git worktrees allow developers to work on multiple branches from the same repository without repeatedly switching contexts or creating full copies, while submodule management helps teams maintain dependencies spread across repositories. The additions are particularly relevant to large organizations overseeing complex projects.

The release adds native support for Git worktrees and submodule management, aiming to make parallel branch development more efficient. GitHub Copilot also gains a model reasoning-effort setting, allowing developers to balance deeper analysis against response speed and token usage based on task complexity. Microsoft is additionally supporting custom AI agents at the organization level, giving companies a way to deploy coding assistants tailored to internal tools, standards and development workflows.